Unemployment falls again in the region

The total stood at 122,000 – 12,000 lower than in the previous three months to April.

Meanwhile, the rate of unemployment nationally is at its lowest in 45 years, driven by a record low in the percentage of women who are unemployed.

The number of people out of work dropped 11,000 to 1.29 million for the quarter, as the rate of unemployment stayed flat at 3.8 per cent, lower than predicted by analysts.

The West Midlands unemployment rate at 4.2 per cent remains ahead of the UK rate.

Meanwhile, the rate of employment in the UK has hit a record high as workers' wages continue to surge higher.

The number of people in work rose by 31,000 to 32.78 million in the three months to July, the Office for National Statistics said.

But the growth in employment fell below analyst expectations, which had forecast a 55,000 rise.

The employment figure for the West Midlands was £2.8 million.

Claimant count

The number claiming unemployment benefits, including Universal Credit in the West Midlands rose by 2,460 to 132,840, or 3.6 per cent of the working population.

Shropshire saw the claimant count rise by 60 to 3,675, or 1.9 per cent of the working population.

Telford and Wrekin's claimant count was up by 110 to 3,045, or 2.7 per cent of the working population.

The figure in Powys also rose by 85 to 1,220, or 1.6 per cent of the population.

Nationally, job vacancies continued to tumble, however, falling 23,000 to 812,000 during the period, stoking fears of an economic slowdown.

Vacancies were at the lowest level since November 2017, driven by declining job openings at small firms, the ONS said.

Average earnings, which include bonuses, had the fastest rate of growth since May 2008 as they increased by four per cent compared with 3.8 per cent in the previous month.

David Freeman, head of labour market statistics for the ONS, said: "The employment rate has remained fairly constant at a joint record high for some months now, while the unemployment rate was last lower at the end of 1974.

"Vacancies continue to fall back from recent record highs, with much of this decline coming from small businesses.

"Including bonuses, wages are now growing at four per cent a year in cash terms for the first time since 2008.

"Once adjusted for inflation, they have now gone above two per cent for the first time in nearly four years."

What the figures mean

• The number of people claiming jobless benefits has once again shot up in the region at the same time the overall measure of unemployment has fallen. How can this be the case?

• There is a large degree of overlap between the claimant count and unemployment, but the two don’t directly tie in together.

• The claimant count does not measure unemployment – it tells us how many people are claiming benefits, which is not exactly the same thing. It may not reflect the true level of unemployment, given that not all the unemployed will bother or choose to claim, and some are deterred because they cannot prove they are looking for work.

• In certain circumstances people can claim benefits while they have relatively low earnings from part time work; these claimants in a paid job would not appear in the Labour Force Survey measure of unemployment.

• Similarly claimants of unemployment benefits may not appear in the LFS measure if, when interviewed for the survey, they stated that they are not seeking, or are not available to start work.

• Both of these types of people would appear within the claimant count but would not be classified as unemployed.

• Similarly, people who are not claimants can appear among the unemployed if they are not entitled to, or choose not to claim unemployment benefits.