Job Centre sign:

Island unemployment rises. Jobs available at lowest level for years (Update 2)

Figures for unemployed claimants came out this morning which show that 3,478 people on the Isle of Wight were claiming Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) in November 2012.

Unemployment Benefit figures released by the Office for National Statistics show a rise of 320 since October, which reported 3,158 JSA claimants, and a rise of 39 from November 2011 (3,439).

That means 4.2% of the resident population of area aged 16-64 is claiming JSA – 1.8% more than the rest of the South East (2.4%), and 0.4% more than the whole of the UK (3.8%).

Unfilled Jobcentre vacancies lowest for years
The number of unfilled Jobcentre vacancies has dropped to its lowest level (168) since January 2010 (75).

That’s a considerable fall of 159 from last month, where it was 327 and a drop of 33 from the same period (November) last year.

The two other indicators the Government body releases in connection with unfilled Jobcentre vacancies are:

  • Unfilled jobcentre vacancies per 10,000 population aged 16-64 – 20
  • JSA Claimants per unfilled jobcentre vacancy – 20.7

Graph