The number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits has fallen for the 15th month in a row to a 32-year low of just over 800,000, new figures showed today.
Total unemployment, including people not eligible to claim Jobseeker’s Allowance, also fell, down by 13,000 in the three months to November to 1.65 million.
The number of people in work increased by 175,000 in the latest quarter to 29.3 million, the highest figure since records began in 1971. It was the biggest quarterly increase in employment for a decade, said the Office for National Statistics.
Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants fell by 6,400 last month to 807,700, the lowest total since the summer of 1975 and down by 131,400 over the past year.
The trend was mirrored in Shropshire, where the overall number of those claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance fell by 179 from 4,465 to 4,286.
There was a fall across the county, with the figure down by 58 in Telford and Wrekin, from 2,080 to 2, 022 and by 29 in Shrewsbury and Atcham, from 724 to 695.
There was a fall of 17 in north Shropshire, from 538 to 521 and 11 in south Shropshire, from 261 to 250. The figure was down by five in Bridgnorth to 383 and by one in Oswestry, to 415.
In Powys the number of claimants fall by 14, from 1,069 to 1,055.
6 Comments
Whats the number of people claiming Incapacity Benefit instead of unemployment benefit.
It would be interesting to see the numbers claiming incapacity benefit (or its predecessors) over the same period.
….but the number of people who are working hasn’t gone up by anything like the same amount. Good old Incapacity Benefit!!!
I echo comments 1,2 and 3. These figures are yet another government con trick. The real figure is approaching 4,000,000 unemployed in this country. Good old Incapacity Benefit, indeed.
People who are conning Incapacity Benefit are making people who actually need and deserve it, tarred with the same brush. Why should people, who it should be for go through the stress of having to once again “prove” there eligible for this. The government needs to not just blindly get everyone off Incapacity Benefit but sift through the claims and actually detect the ones that are conning.
The unemployment figures are down , the imcompacity argument claiments have stayed static, the guv needs to attack this group hard the claimers of stress, bad backs ,and the biggest con of all yuppie flu that lasts for years . they believe the real amount of claiments should be or will be down to 10000 from 30000.