Yorkshire’s unemployed struggling to move off claimant count

UNEMPLOYMENT rates in parts of Yorkshire and Humber have fallen more slowly than anywhere else in England as 91,000 people remain on jobseeker’s allowance throughout the region.

The latest official figures showed there were 91,388 claimants last month across Yorkshire and Humber – down from its peak in the recession of 171,924 people, in February 2012.

However this fall of 46.8% is the second-slowest region in the country, with only the North East performing worst, with a drop of 45.8%.

England as a whole has seen a fall of 51.7% since its claimant count peaked, also in February 2012. If Yorkshire and Humber had achieved the same level of improvement, a further 8,300 people would no longer be receiving jobseeker’s allowance.

The problems are particularly bad in the region’s cities. Bradford has seen the second-slowest recovery among England’s 326 local authorities, with only a 38.6% improvement, while Leeds is ranked eighth, with 41.4%, and Sheffield twelfth with 42.8%. By contrast, North West rivals Manchester and Liverpool are both fractionally below 50%.

More positively, Harrogate, Richmondshire and York have all seen reductions of more than 70%, although Harrogate’s improvement may have been inflated by trialling the shift to universal credit.

Nationally, the claimant count fell for the ninth consecutive month, having fallen by one-third to 670,000 since February.

The Department for Work and Pensions chose to focus solely on the long-term increase in private sector employment in the region. Commenting on that aspect, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, said: In Yorkshire and the Humber, private sector employment has increased by 197,000 since 2010. These figures show that our long term economic plan to create a better more prosperous future for Britain is working – with thousands of people feeling more secure over the Christmas period with a regular wage.”

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