Figures for unemployed claimants came out this morning which show that 3,105 people on the Isle of Wight were claiming Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) in May 2012.
Based on figures released by the Office for National Statistics, this is a welcome fall of 196 since April, which showed 3,303 JSA claimants but a rise of 294 from May 2011 (2,813).
That means 3.7% of the resident population of area aged 16-64 is claiming JSA – 1.1% more than the rest of the South East (2.6%), and 0.2% less than the whole of the UK (3.9%).
