Unemployment unexpectedly falls in Greater Manchester

Figures released today show that unemployment unexpectedly fell in Greater Manchester last month. The number of jobseeker’s allowance claimants in Greater Manchester fell by 398 to 84,622 in February 2010. This is a fall of 0.5% on last month, but the figure is still 16.3% up on last year.

The monthly fall bucked the national trend where the number of claimants rose marginally by 0.2%.

Manchester’s Commission for the New Economy estimate that the total number of unemployed people in Greater Manchester – which differs from the claimant count as not all unemployed people claim jobseeker’s allowance benefit – now stands at 121,970, 9.6% of the adult population.

Figures released by Jobcentre Plus show that the number of vacancies reported to them in Greater Manchester increased to 16,600, up almost 50% on January’s figures.

John Holden, head of strategic research at New Economy said:
"We were expecting a slight increase in unemployment this month, so the fall is clearly positive and indicates that the recovery may be more robust in Manchester than across the rest of the UK. Whilst we shouldn’t read too much into one month’s figures, this time 12 months ago unemployment was rising at a record pace so clearly the economic climate has improved since then.

However the number of people on unemployment benefit is almost a fifth higher than last year and the weakness of the global and national economies means that significant and sustained reductions in unemployment are still a way off.”

Baron Frankal, director of economic strategy at New Economy added:
" Today’s unemployment figures are better than hoped for, particularly given that the underlying economic position remains relatively weak. UK plc is still feeling its way out of recession and Manchester still needs to do much more to grasp the opportunities of a weaker pound and the roaring growth driving up domestic demand in China and the emerging economies. Supplying overseas markets can be a key driver of recovery for our businesses "

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