Benefits claimants on the rise (From Evesham Journal)

Benefits claimants on the rise

2:19pm Tuesday 9th March 2010

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THE county’s latest employment figures has revealed an increase in the amount of people claiming benefits.

The County Economic Summary for February 2010, which was published by Worcestershire County Council last week, showed that the claimant count for Worcestershire in January 2010 was 13,179, or 4.7 per cent of the economically active population.

This represents an increase of 1,107 claimants in comparison to the previous month, and an increase of 2,709 on the same period last year.

This rise in claimants is consistent with a long-term seasonal trend for higher claimant numbers in January because many people are employed temporarily during the run-up to Christmas.

In the second half of 2009 the number of claimants stabilised.

Meanwhile, the number of notified job vacancies was 2,688, a 5.4 per cent decrease compared to the number of vacancies in December 2009, but a 179 per cent increase on the number in January 2009.

More information on the state of the county’s economy can be found at worcestershire.gov.uk/research.

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