Suffolk/Essex: Jobs outlook worsens as unemployment climbs again

Unemployment has hit a new 17-year high, official figures revealed today

Wednesday, January 18, 2012
10:10 AM

UNEMPLOYMENT continued to edge higher in most parts of Suffolk and north Essex last month as the national jobless total hit a new 17-year high, official figures revealed today.

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The number of people claiming the Jobseeker?s Allowance grew by 1,200 in December to 1.6million, with the 10th consecutive month increase taking the figure to its highest for a year

And total unemployment, including those not eligible for benefit, increased by 118,000 in the three months to November to 2.68million ? its worst since the summer of 1994.

One glimmer of good news was that total employment increased by 18,000 to 29.12million, but the number of people in full-time employment fell by 57,000 in the latest three months while there was a 75,000 increase in part-time workers, more than of them people accepting part-time jobs because they could not find full-time work.

In Suffolk, the unemployment rate (benefit claimants as a percentage of the total workforce) grew by 0.1% of a percentage point in Babergh, where the claimant count rose by 30 to 1,257 (representing a rate of 2.5%), Ipswich, up 64 to 4,207 (5.0%), St Edmundsbury, up 65 to 1,624 (2.5%), and Waveney, up 46 to 3,008 (4.3%).

Relative smaller increases left the rate unchanged in Forest Heath, up 32 to 885 (2.1%), and Suffolk Coastal, up 11 to 1,457 (2.0%), while in Mid Suffolk the count dipped by 19 to 1,184, cutting the rate by 0.1% to 2.0%.

It was a similar picture in north and mid-Essex where the rate increased by 0.1% in Braintree, up 29 to 2,528 (2.8%), and Maldon, up 42 to 908 (2.3%).

Smaller increases left the rate unchanged in Tendring, up 26 to 3,736 (4.4%), and Uttlesford, up two to 827 (1.7%).

And small falls in the claimant count also left the rate unchanged in Chelmsford, down eight to 2,829 (2.6%), and Colchester, down 11 to 3,326 (2.7%).

Source: http://www.eadt.co.uk/suffolk_essex_jobs_outlook_worsens_as_unemployment_climbs_again_1_1180430

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