Figures released yesterday by the Office of National Statistics show within North East Hertfordshire, the number of Jobseekers Allowance claimants has dropped from 1,433 (March 2012) to 1,384 as of the end of April 2012 which is very positive news after last month’s fall. This is especially welcome, since nationally, the number of people claiming decreased by 13,700 between March and April 2012 to 1.59 million people aged 18 or over [1]. In the period January to March 2012, the wider ILO measure of unemployment was 2.63 million people and this was also a decrease of 45,000, from the last quarter [2]. So there has been a decrease in unemployment figures for two consecutive months.
Commenting Oliver Heald said:
“This is good news for NE Herts with unemployment down two months running. The national figures are good too. This must cast doubt on last week’s news that the economy had apparently slipped into a double-dip recession by 0.1% [3]. These figures are revised over a period as new data comes in and it may be that the shallow “double dip” is not what it seemed. It also conflicted with the strong figures on construction growth. I congratulate all those who have found work this month.”
[1] http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/RP12-17
[2] http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/april-2012/i…
[3] http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_263951.pdf