The official unemployment figures for the Island were released this morning.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefit on the Wight appears to have doubled in a year.
August 2009 saw 3,196 on the Island signing on for unemployment benefit – that’s 5.4% of what they call the “economically active population.” In August the previous year (2008) there were 1,539, a difference of 1,657.
What’s confusing is that at 5.4%, the Island’s unemployment is under the 6.0% average for the South East, which itself is currently the lowest region in the UK.
We’d been under the impression that the Island’s unemployment figure was high.
When comparing August 07 to 08 the difference was only 27 points, just 1.8%.
