Mixed signals from June’s jobless figures – but more private sector jobs recorded

Across the nation the jobless total dropped 51,000 to stand at 2.61 million during the February to April quarter. However, the most recent month-on-month figures show the number claiming Jobseekers Allowance rose by 8,100 between April and May to 1.6 million people aged eighteen and over – that is 96,300 higher than in May 2011.

Ministers in the coalition government have expressed their satisfaction that the number of people in employment increased by 166,000 over the last quarter with a big rise in private sector employment (notably in the West Midlands) and public sector employment reduced to its lowest level since March 2003.

One of the aims of Wiltshire Council’s economic policy and the Action for Wiltshire programmehas been to make the county’s workforce less dependent on public sector employment.  However, this week in its annual report on its four-year business plan, the Council admitted it had not met its target for creating new jobs in the county.

The four-year target is to create 6,000 new jobs in Wiltshire.  In the first year of the plan – 2011-2012 – only 991 jobs were created against a target for the year of 1,500.  As the target is cumulative, last year’s deficit will be added to this year’s target.  The Council claims that 2,950 new jobs are currently “in the pipeline”.

Nationally there is still anxiety that many people are only finding part-time work. That 166,000 rise in people in employment was evenly split between full-time and part-time jobs. And the number of people working part-time because they cannot find a full-time job rose 25,000 on the last quarter to stand at 1.41 million.

The Devizes constituency was one of 523 constituencies to see a rise in the claimant level between May 2011 and May 2012.  But was one of 568 constituencies to see it fall between April and May this year – in the case of Devizes down by thirty-five claimants.

But there’s still no good news for the longer-term unemployed. Nationally the number of people unemployed for longer than twelve months increased by 30,000 over the last quarter and by 57,000 over the past year. In the Devizes constituency the number of long-term claimants has more than doubled between May 2011 and May 2012 to stand at 155 – and that is slightly up on the April figure.

Nationally those between sixteen and twenty-four who are unemployed fell by 29,000 during February-April.  In the Devizes constituency unemployment for this age group was very marginally higher between April and May. The prospect for job seekers in the constituency was very slightly better with 5.4 claimants for every vacancy.

NOTE: Unlike the national figures, employment statistics for the constituencies are not seasonally adjusted and so may reflect changes in the claimant count that happen every year – such as school and college terms and seasonal employment in agriculture and tourism.