In May’s official figures released this week, the Devizes constituency recorded a second monthly fall in those unemployed and claiming Job Seekers’ Allowance – but the year-on-year figures still look bleak. The number of claimants in the constituency during April was nearly sixteen per cent above that in April 2011.
Nationally unemployment declined by 45,000 in the three months to March – which was an unexpected and much welcomed change for the better. The total number of jobless fell to 2,630,000 its lowest level since last summer. That brought the unemployment rate in the first quarter down to 8.2 per cent, from 8.4 per cent in the last quarter of 2011.
The fall in those aged between sixteen and twenty-four who are unemployed, was mirrored in the Devizes constituency with a fall amounting to just fifteen fewer claimants. But as in the national figures, the long-term unemployment count has risen very slightly and is now well over double the constituency’s figure for April 2011.
In January this year, Devizes MP Claire Perry told the House of Commons that while unemployment in the constituency was “creeping up”, long-term unemployment was “coming down”. This movement seems now to have been turned on its head in the latest official figures.
However, what is not shown in the constituency figures is the numbers who are in temporary or part-time employment. Nationally the number in full-time jobs fell between January and March by 13,000 and part-time employment rose by 118,000.
Those in part-time jobs who have been unable to find full-time work now number 1,420,000 – which is eighteen per cent of all part-time works and the highest figure since such records began in 1992. Somebody will soon have work out an index for under-employment.
More worrying for high street shops and household budgets in the Devizes constituency is that the rise in the average weekly total pay was just 0.6 per cent between January and March. The consumer price index showed inflation at 3.5 per cent in March and this week the Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, forecast inflation would remain well above the Bank’s 2 per cent target until the middle of 2013.
