Jobless total crashes through 7,500 barrier

Rochdale's jobless total has risen again and the town has recorded one of its worst unemployment figures in the last decade.

There are 7,505 people out of work in Rochdale according to the latest government statistics, a rise of 189 on last month's figure.

The total comprises 5,563 men and 1,942 women.

It represents 5.9% of the working population and compares unfavourably with the Greater Manchester regional percentage of 4.7% and the national percentage of 4.2%. 

Samantha Dunbar, Policy Manager for Employment and Skills at Greater Manchester Chamber, said: ”The increase in people claiming job seekers allowance is disappointing news and shows that the Greater Manchester job market continues to be challenging. 

“The data also suggests that despite gradual signs of recovery this continues to be a difficult time for many local businesses in what experts believe will be a slow and protracted recovery.”

Nationally, the recession claimed another 220,000 jobs in the three months to June to take the total number of unemployed to 2.43 million. Unemployment in the UK is now at its highest level since the summer of 1995.

This marks the 17th month in a row where the claimant count has increased in the UK.

The jobless total of 2,435,000 will put further pressure on the Government to take steps to boost the economy.

Youth unemployment rose by 46,000 to 722,000, while the number of people out of work for longer than a year remained at an 11–year high, up by 36,000 to 543,000.

The number of people in work also fell, by 271,000 between April and June to 28.9 million after a fall of 0.9% in the employment rate to 72.7%.

This is the same rate seen earlier this year, which marked the worst since records began.

There was some good news with a slowdown in the number of redundancies — down by 9,000 quarter–on–quarter to 277,000 in the three months to June, although this was up 150,000 on a year earlier.

Vacancies fell to a record low of 427,000 in the three months to July, down by 26,000 on the previous quarter and 203,000 on a year ago.

Manufacturing jobs fell again, by 212,000 year–on–year to 2.66 million in the three months to June, which remained at the lowest since records began in 1978.