Mixed news in unemployment figures
Adam Hewitt • Published 15 Sep 2010 17:30
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JOBLESS figures have ticked back up after months of continuous falls.
West Berkshire, Wokingham borough and South Oxfordshire all saw small rises in the jobseekers claimant count, although Reading had a fall of 26, from 3,779 to 3,753. The percentage of the borough’s working age population claiming jobseekers stayed static at 3.5%.
In Wokingham, the most recent figures released yesterday (Wednesday) [15] show there were 1,603 (1.5% of the working-age population) unemployed jobseekers in August, up from 1,544 (1.4%) the month before, a rise of 59.
West Berkshire has 1,954 (2%) people signing on, up from 1,932 (2%), while South Oxfordshire saw a rise of 20, from 1,273 (1.5%) to 1,293 (1.6%).
The results mirror the national picture, which showed the claimant count rising by 2,300 to 1.47m, although the total number of people unemployed, a wider and less reliable measure than the claimant count, showed a rise of 8,000 to 2.47m.
The Reading East parliamentary constituency saw a fall from 2,563 last year to 2,144 in the latest figures, prompting MP Rob Wilson to welcome the "good news".
He said: "The fact that this year there are 419 fewer people in my constituency out of work, receiving unemployment benefits, is a positive step forward.
“However, there is much more work still to be done and there will be bumps in the road yet. We do need to deal with the deficit; if we don’t unemployment will be much higher.”
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