UNEMPLOYMENT fell across Merseyside for the first time in 15 months in September – raising hopes that large-scale job cuts might be coming to an end.

Figures released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics showed the number of claimants fell by 802 last month, to 57,844.

The fall was seen in all six authorities in Liverpool city region, led by Wirral which dropped 2.5%.

It ends a run of rising unemployment in the region that has seen 22,127 people start claiming jobseeker’s allowance since July 2008 – a 62% increase.

The rising trend in unemployment has been slowing in recent months across the region.

In the first three months of 2009 the claimant count climbed by 8,857, the second quarter showed a rise of 2,446 while the third quarter saw an increase of just 463.

Economist Peter Stoney, an honorary senior fellow at Liverpool University’s management school and director of the Liverpool Research Group in Macroeconomics, argued that while “the worst is over”, further rises may still happen.

“There’s bound to be a bit of seasonality in the drop and we need to watch another month or two’s figures,” he said.

“The claimant count for unemployment is turning out to be not so high as forecast previously, Merseyside’s looking likely to remain below 60,000.

“There are several reasons to be optimistic for Merseyside once the global recession recedes next year, despite the possibility of cutbacks in its large public sector due to government budget constraints.

“There are ambitious plans afoot to exploit the sub-region’s biggest natural asset — its port. Cruise liners have started to reappear regularly, freight trade can be expected to grow too.

“Liverpool City Centre has seen a total transformation in the last twelve months. There is a burgeoning business tourism sector, with new hotels supporting — amongst many other attractions — the highly visible and effective Arena and Convention Centre.”

The city region now has an unemployment rate of 6.3%, ranging from 5.3% in St Helens to 7.6% in Liverpool.

Sara Williams, director of enterprise development at St Helens Chamber, this week said “there is a real aura of confidence growing in the St Helens business community”, a claim backed up by yesterday’s figures which showed a fall in claimants in the town for the third time in the last four months.

Nationally, the number of claimants rose by 20,800 in September from a revised August figure to 1.63m – the lowest increase since May last year.