East Worthing and Shoreham MP, Tim Loughton, has again cautiously welcomed the recent employment statistics provided by the House of Common’s library. The figures showed that in his constituency the number of unemployed claimants was 1,550 in July of this year. This represents a rate of 3.5% of the economically active population aged 16-64, the 454th highest of the UK constituencies. The number of claimants is 77 lower than in July 2010.
These figures show that the number of people claiming unemployment benefits in East Worthing and Shoreham has gradually reduced over the last three months with 1,580 people claiming in March.
On seeing the results, Tim said “Although I am glad to see that unemployment rates are continuing to fall in my constituency compared to last year and just a few months ago, we must not forget that we are still in the middle of the worst financial crisis our nation has seen for decades and there is a long way to go. We are fortunate in Adur and Worthing that we have not been hit by job losses as much as other parts of the country but that is no reason to be complacent and I will continue to work with the local councils and others to make sure that we make our area a good place to do business and that is why I am always keen to hear the voices of local businesses. In Government, I am particularly aware of the effects of the recession on young people, especially, which is why we are working hard across a number of different departments on a number of practical measures to tackle the problems of NEETS, improve educational standards and produce a record number of apprenticeships.
The Children’s Minister also went on to say: “As I have said before, the Government has laid out a solid work foundation in its Work Programme to get people back into work and, although monthly and quarterly unemployment figures are fluctuating at the moment, I am confident we will see employment rise and the economy secured by the end of this Government’s term in 2015.”