Shropshire jobless figures bucking national trend

Unemployment has fallen to its lowest level for a year new figures showed today.

But there was a very different picture in Shropshire, with the first rise in the number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance in four months.

Nationally, the unemployment total fell by 46,000 in the quarter to June to 2.56 million – an unemployment rate of eight per cent.

However, most of the quarterly fall came in London, suggesting that a big temporary jobs boost from the Olympics was behind the fall.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance last month was 1.59 million, down by 5,900 on June, said the Office for National Statistics.

However, Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire both suffered their first rises in Jobseekers’ Allowance claimants since February, rising to 4,542 from 4,464 in June in Telford, and from 4,728 to 4,818 in Shropshire.

Other figures showed that the number of part-time workers has reached a record high of 8.07 million while those working part-time because they cannot find a full-time job is 1.42 million, the highest figure since records began in 1992.

The number of people in work increased by 201,000 to almost 30 million, the highest since last summer, with half of the rise coming in London. Youth unemployment fell by 4,000 to just over a million.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: “These are positive and encouraging figures demonstrating the strength of our private sector – notwithstanding the difficult economic times it is still creating jobs, the vast majority of which are full-time.”

Unemployment has fallen for five consecutive quarters, while the so-called claimant count was down for the first time since April.

But there was an increase of 1,600 in the number of women claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance to 530,000, compared with a 7,500 fall among men, to just over a million.