Unemployment falls as upturn gathers pace
NORTH West unemployment levels shrunk by 4.7% in September as the economic upturn gathered pace.
In Greater Manchester 72,500 people were claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) last month – a decrease of 4,100 (5.4%) when compared with the figure for August 2013 of 76,700.
Monthly declines were also seen across the North West (4.7%) and Great Britain (4.8%). As a proportion of the resident working age population, 4.1% of people in Greater Manchester were claiming JSA in September – higher than the North West (3.7% of the population) and Great Britain (3.2%).
Commenting on the data Baron Frankal, director of economic strategy at New Economy, said: “With the good news that Greater Manchester’s Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants are slowly declining each month, the focus should now turn to sustaining this trend over the medium-term and then accelerating it.
“There remains a great deal to do, although the recent news of the Chinese investment in Airport City – a major coup – sets a fair wind behind the argument that with the right stimulus on the demand-side of the economy, good things will come; though for everyone to benefit we also need to tackle difficult supply-side issues as well, such as the poorer parts of our education system.”
Nationally the number of unemployed in the UK fell by 18,000 in the June-August period to 2.49 million, the Office for National Statistics said. The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance last month fell by 41,700 to 1.35 million.
Unemployment has become a key economic indicator for the Bank of England. Governor Mark Carney says interest rates won’t be raised from their record low of 0.5% until the rate falls to 7%.
