City fares well in Yorkshire jobless tables

1:26pm Thursday 14th August 2008

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UNEMPLOYMENT in York is among the lowest in Yorkshire, according to new statistics released by the Government.

On July 10, 1,929 people in York were claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance – 1.5 per cent of the city’s working age population.

That is 59 more people than in July 2007 and a better rate than in many other Yorkshire towns and cities.

In Leeds, for example, Jobseeker’s Allowance was being claimed by 2.7 per cent of the working age population, while in Scarborough, 2.5 per cent were claiming the benefit.

City of York councillor Steve Galloway said: “We are happy with the way the York economy has been going over the past four or five years.

“We have managed to reduce the level of unemployment and it has remained stable at about the same level for about two-and-a-half years despite job losses like at Nestlé, and more famously Terry’s and British Sugar.”

He said this was largely due to the resilience of other parts of the economy, including the service, knowledge and education-based sectors.

He said: “We are fortunate in York to have two major universities, a specialist college in law and agriculture, as well as a further education college.

“It is a combination of having that ability to diversify the economy, together with the investment that firms like Nestlé have made in modernising their production facilities that has left us with quite a resilient economy.”

But he said nobody must be complacent and the recent announcement of potential job losses at Norwich Union was still worrying.

A spokesperson for Job Centre Plus, in Stonegate, York, said: “The figures show there are over 1,000 less people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in York compared with ten years ago.

“The long-term trend has been of reducing unemployment and increasing employment.”