Rochdale unemployment claimant count falls

The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in Rochdale has fallen again.

Last month 6,714 claimed the benefit compared with 6,881 the month before.

Dr Brian Sloan, Head of Business and Economic Policy at Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, said: "The Chamber anticipated that today's claimant count would be down on last month's as predicted by our Quarterly Economic Survey (QES).

"After Jobseeker's Allowance claimants remained fairly steady during the summer a fall of 2,219 this month is very welcome, with falls in each one of the ten local authority areas.

"Nationally unemployment has fallen by 9,000 and the private sector continues to create jobs at a much faster rate than the public sector losses, though once again this is driven by the number of part-time workers.

"Our QES also indicates that this is happening in Greater Manchester and looking more closely at the data returned for quarter four so far, it seems unlikely that job creation on this scale will continue into the New Year."