Claimant count increases by 3,000 across region
ANOTHER 3,000 people began claiming jobseeker’s allowance in the region last month as unemployment continue to soar.
Official figures released yesterday showed there had been a 7% monthly increase in the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance in Liverpool city region to 45,276.
Nationally, the number of people claiming increased for the 11th consecutive month to 1.16m, a rise of 9% and the highest figure since 2000.
There will be worse to come in next month’s figures, as the effects of tens of thousands of job cuts which have already been announced continue to filter through to the official data.
However the city region has continued to out-perform the rest of the country with Liverpool in particular proving to be more resilient than most.
In the last year the claimant count for people living in the city has increased by 23%, half of the national increase of 46%.
The city region – which also includes Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral – has seen its claimant count increase 32% during 2008.
The national jobless increased by 131,000 in the three months to November to 1.92m, the highest figure for over a decade.
The UK now has an unemployment rate of 6.1% and, with tens of thousands of job losses announced since the cut-off date of November 30, next month’s figures are expected to pass the psychologically-important 2m barrier.
The Office of National Statistics does not break the unemployment data down below regions, but across the North West another 36,000 people are now unemployed and now stands at 256,000 people, or 7.6% of the working-age population.
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