The national statistics released on Wednesday (July 17) showed the number of people claiming uenemployment benefit dropped by 21,200 in June. This is the fastest rate of improvement for three years.
The wider calculation of those out of work (which takes longer to collect) showed Britain’s unemploymenrt toal between March and May was 57,000 lower than for the previous quarter. The figure was down to 2,510,000 or 7.8 per cent of the labour force.
However figures for the long-term unemployed have reached a seventeen year high – rising by 32,000. And the number of people who are ‘economically inactive’ (those not seeking work) has increased by 87,000 to reach nine million.
Figures for the Devizes constituency reflected the better news. Those claiming job seeker’s allowance fell in June by twelve per cent against the same month last year.
And between May and June the number of claimants fell by seventy bringing the claimant rate down from 1.9 per cent to 1.8 per cent.
In the constituency the figure for the long-term unemployed (those out of work for more than a year) rose by almost twelve per cent over the figure for June 2012. The actual number was exactly the same in June as that recorded for May.
Unemployment in the 18-24 age group is proving a stubborn problem. The June figure for the constituency was down by 7.4 per cent or 20 fewer claimants against June 2012. Between May and June this year the figure fell by 25 to 250.
The better news for unemployment could not hide the continuing fall in living standards. Average weekly earnings (excluding bonus payments) rose by one per cent in the period March-May – while inflation is now at 2.9 per cent.