EMPLOYMENT figures rose further last month despite the impact of the Omicron variant and Government’s Plan B restrictions.

In York, the number of people seeking work was almost half the figure it was a year ago with 2,697 residents searching for jobs, as of November 20, 2021. Among those, 438 were 18 to 24-year-olds.

In November 2000, those figures were 4,660 and 960 respectively.

In Ryedale, there were 677 people looking for work, including 67 aged 18 to 24, in November 2021.

This was down from 1,102 - of whom 186 were aged 18 to 24 - in November 2020, according to York Job Centre.

The data from the Alternative Claimant Count (ACC) show people in the searching-for-work group, including those claiming Universal Credit who are required to look for work, or additional work, and who are on council tax / housing benefit relief.

Wendy Mangan, employer and partnership manager for York Job Centre, said the figures were very positive.

“The new year has focussed our attention on recruiting for the key industries where the workforce has been depleted by the pandemic.“Working in partnership with local employers in the care and hospitality sectors has given us the push to target their needs by tailoring our recruitment and support practices, whether that’s through the Kickstart scheme, or directly at the jobcentre.”

In Selby, these figures were 1,335, including 204 young people, in 2021, compared to 2,110 (382 young people).

In Harrogate, the ACC figure for November 2021 was 2,020, of whom 260 were young people, compared to 3,450 the previous year, when 567 young people were searching for employment.

Nationally, the number of UK payrolled workers jumped in December by a record 184,000 month on month, or 0.6 per cent, to 29.5 million, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In the three months to November, the unemployment rate fell back almost to where it was pre-Covid, to 4.1 per cent from 4.2 per cent in the previous quarter and close to the four per cent level seen in the last pre-pandemic quarter.

The ONS said the number of people employed is now 409,000, or 1.4 per cent, above the levels seen before Covid.

But soaring prices on household finances have taken their toll, with wages falling in November for the first time in more than a year.

Darren Morgan, of the ONS, said: “New survey figures show that, in the three months to November, the unemployment rate fell back almost to where it was before Covid-19 hit, and those reporting they’d recently been made redundant fell to their lowest since records began more than a quarter of a century ago.

“However, while job vacancies reached a new high in the last quarter of 2021, they are now growing more slowly than they were last summer.”