Hundreds fewer claiming benefits

Hunderds fewer people in Northumberland were claiming unemployment benefits in September than the month before, figures show.
Benefit claims fallBenefit claims fall
Benefit claims fall

Office for National Statistics data shows 8,380 people in the area were claiming out-of-work benefits as of September 9, down from 8,745 in August.

It means 4.4% of Northumberland’s working-age population sought support in September – down from 4.6% the previous month.

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The figures include those aged 16 to 64 on Jobseeker’s Allowance and some Universal Credit claimants, who are employed but with low earnings.

National figures show the number of people seeking help fell by 80,000 month on month to 2.1million in September.

The ONS said the number of payrolled workers rose by 207,000 nationally between August and September to a record 29.2million – higher than pre-levels seen before the pandemic struck in February 2020.

Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: “The jobs market has continued to recover from the effects of the coronavirus, with the number of employees on payroll in September now well exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

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“Vacancies also reached a new one-month record in September, at nearly 1.2million, with our latest estimates suggesting that all industries have at least as many jobs on offer now as before the onset of Covid-19.”

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “As we move to the next stage of our support, it’s encouraging to see our Plan for Jobs working – there are more employees on payrolls than ever before and the unemployment rate has fallen for eight months in a row.”