These amounted to 1.7% of the local population when the equivalent UK rate was 3.7% for 16-64 and 4.3% for 18-24.
These figures for the claimant count show the number of people who were claiming unemployment related benefits. This includes those who were claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance or were claiming Universal Credit and are required to seek work.
There was a large increase in the claimant count between March and May 2020. While some of this increase will have been people who became unemployed, some will have been employed people who became eligible for Universal Credit due to changes the Government introduced in response to the coronavirus.
The Resolution Foundation estimated that only around half of this increase related to those newly out of work
John Howell MP said:
“I welcome the continued drop in the number of claimants. This shows that the actions taken by a Conservative Government during the pandemic worked well.”