Issued by City of York Council
City of York Council has welcomed the news today that the number of people claiming Jobs Seekers Allowance (JSA) in York has reduced by a further 118 people since November and remains the lowest recorded since December 2008.
The JSA claimant count for York in December has been recorded as 2,850, according to statistics released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) today, a decrease of 505 since December 2011.
The figures put York’s JSA claimant count at 2.1% of the working age population and much lower than the region at 4.7% and the 3.7% picture nationally.
Year on year, the number of people claiming Jobs Seekers Allowance in York has also decreased, from 3,355 (2.4%) of the working age population in December 2011.
York is the joint second least affected city for change in its JSA claimant count rate between February 2008 and December 2012 (Centre for Cities) after Cambridge.
Cllr James Alexander, labour leader for City of York Council said: “Whilst it is clearly a concern that we have people in York still having to claim Jobs Seekers Allowance, it is encouraging to see less people needing to claim since this time last year. It is particularly good to see a decrease in the number of women claiming JSA – with the lowest count in two and a half years – and a further drop in youth unemployment, which means we continue to have the least number of 18-24 year olds having to claim in the region.
“We will continue to work with partners across the city – such as the Jobs Centre Plus and Future Prospects – to ensure that those people currently out of work have access to support agencies, education and training providers to give them the best possible chance of gaining employment. We will also continue to work with both private and public sector partners to help those out of work gain employment in and around York.
“The latest ONS figures and the Centre for Cities report released this week demonstrate that the work we are doing as a city to foster an environment for businesses to grow and create jobs is working and confidence is rising.”
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