Unemployment dips

Tuesday 28 January 2014

Unemployment dropped slightly in December with 1,750 people out of work – the lowest figure in more than a year.

Figures out today showed that unemployment figures were at their lowest since October 2012. The 1,750 people out of work at the end of December was 60 lower than the previous month. And there was more encouraging news for long-term unemployment, with the number of people out of work for 12 months or more at its lowest for more than a year. There were 310 people who had been out of work for more than 12 months, or 18% of the total unemployed.

The figures also recorded that there were 270 teenagers between 16 and 19 who were out of work at the end of the year, and 50 people under the age of 25 who had been out of work for more than 12 months.

The most recent figures in the UK have also showed a slight drop in unemployment, with the November unemployment stats recording a drop of 167,000 down to 2.3 million. The unemployment rate is 7.1% but that figure covers wide regional variations – in parts of Birmingham, for example, more than one-in-ten working age people are unemployed.

The most recent comparable unemployment rate for Jersey was 5.7%, recorded in the June 2013 Annual Social Survey.

Jersey’s current total of 1,750 out of work compares to the record high of 2,050 in March 2013 and a record low of 840 in January 2009.