Shropshire shares sharp drop in jobless figures

The latest figure, for the three months to July and which includes Shropshire, marks a drop of 15,000 on the previous quarter – down by 10 per cent – according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

And it is down by 30,000 on the same period a year ago – a drop of 18.4 per cent.

At the same time the number of people in work across the West Midlands has risen by 1.3 per cent to almost 2.8 million.

Nationwide, the number of people in work has continued to rise while average earnings have grown slightly faster than inflation, official figures show.

UK employment increased by 3,000 in the three months to July to 32.4 million, giving a rate of 75.5 per cent, according to the ONS.

Workers also benefited as average earnings increased by 2.6 per cent in the year to July, up from 2.4 per cent the previous month.

The latest consumer prices index (CPI) rate of inflation was recorded at 2.5 per cent.

Allowance

It came as unemployment fell by by 55,000 over the period to 1.36 million, giving a jobless rate of four per cent. Regionally, London has the highest rate, at 4.7 per cent, followed by the West Midlands at 4.6 per cent.

But the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits, such as Jobseeker's Allowance and elements of the new Universal Credit, has risen from 906,100 in July to 919,000 last month. This is partly due to the increasing roll-out of Universal Credit around the country.

Across the West Midlands region the claimant count was up 1,460 to 102,675, or 2.8 per cent of the working population. The national claimant rate is 2.2 per cent.

Shropshire saw the claimant count rise by 100 to 2,450, or 1.3 per cent of the working population.

Telford and Wrekin's claimant count fell by 10 to 1,915, or 1.7 per cent of the working population.

The figure in Powys rose by five to 715, or 0.9 per cent of the population.

ONS head of labour market statistics David Freeman said: "With the number of people in work little changed, employment growth has weakened.

"However, the labour market remains robust, with the number of people working still at historically high levels, unemployment down on the year and a record number of vacancies

"Meanwhile, earnings have grown faster than prices for several months, especially looking at pay excluding bonuses."

The number of people classed as economically inactive, including students, those on long-term sick leave, taken early retirement, or who have given up looking for work, rose 108,000 on quarter to 8.76 million in the last three months, giving a rate of 21.2 per cent.

The number of self employed workers decreased by 46,000 to 4.8 million.