Jobs cheer for York (From York Press)

Unemployment in York falls

9:11am Thursday 19th July 2012 in News

UNEMPLOYMENT has fallen again in York and North and East Yorkshire, latest figures have revealed.

The number of people claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance in York fell between May and June by 158 to 3,263, or 2.4 per cent of those eligible.

The figure is helped by seasonal factors, with more jobs traditionally created in the summer months, but the number is only marginally worse than the 3,240 people claiming JSA in June last year, and better than the 3,464 claimants in June 2010.

York council leader James Alexander said the figures were broadly comparable with the last couple of years for this time of year, which at least showed York was resilient to the current difficult economic conditions.

“Seasonal jobs are positive in the sense that they offer the opportunity of some employment, but my administration’s economic policy is based on the creation of sustainable employment for local people, and I feel we are taking the tough decisions required to achieve this goal,” he said.

The number of claimants in North Yorkshire fell by 535 to 8,898 in June, or 2.4 per cent of those eligible, compared with 8,649 in June last year.

In East Riding of Yorkshire, the number fell by 147 to 6,722, or 3.2 per cent, which compares with 6,308 in June last year.

In Ryedale, the number of people claiming JSA fell by 48 to 594, or 1.8 per cent of those eligible, very close to the 597 claimants in June last year, while in Selby , the number fell by 77 to 1,526 or 2.8 per cent of those eligible.

Unemployment across Yorkshire and the Humber as a whole rose by 13,000 over the three months to May, the worst regional increase in the UK.

Nationwide, the figures showed unemployment has fallen for the fourth month in a row and more jobs are being created, especially for people over the age of 65.

The jobless total fell by 65,000 to 2.58 million in the quarter to May, the lowest for almost a year, while the number of people in employment increased by 181,000 to just under 30 million, the highest for almost four years, but the numbers claiming jobseeker’s allowance jumped by 6,100 last month to 1.6 million andlong-term unemployment also increased.