The number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) in the South West has fallen again.

The figure for last month (April) stands at 84,335, down from 87,673 in March and a fall of more than 4,733 on the same time last year.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics for April show the level for the region has fallen by 0.1 per cent on 2010, with 3.5 per cent of the male population (57,014) and 1.7 per cent of the female population (27,321) out of work.

As a county Gloucestershire saw the biggest fall year on year for April of 0.5 per cent, with 1,351 fewer people claiming unemployment benefit.

That continues the county’s positive trend. Year-on-year in March Gloucestershire recorded 2,000 fewer people claiming benefit compared with the same month last year – 1,903 men and 97 women - taking the figure to 9,423 for that month.

For April that now stands at 9,044.

Gloucestershire, Somerset and Dorset all saw falls in claimant count across all of their districts. Bath and North East Somerset (0.1) and Bournemouth (0.4) also recorded falls.

Bristol recorded an increase for the month, compared with the same month last year, of 0.1 per cent – with 112 fewer men claiming benefit but 566 more women, an anomoly possibly explained by changes to the benefits system.

Nationally the number of people on jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) rose last month with the number of women claimants hit a 14-and-a-half year high.

The so-called claimant count increased by 12,400 last month to 1.47 million, the largest increase in 16 months, the Office for National Statistics said. Economists were expecting a decline of between 4,000 and 10,000.

The number of women claiming JSA increased by 9,300 to 474,400, the highest level since October 1996, while the number of male claimants increased by 3,100 to 994,200.

The surge in the female claimant count came as more single mothers switched from income support to JSA, due to changes to benefit rules introduced in 2008, the ONS said.

Elsewhere, unemployment fell by 36,000 in the quarter to March to 2.455 million, a rate of 7.7%, down by 0.1% on the quarter.

Source: South West Business