Jobless total falls for a fifth month

THE number of people on dole queues across Oldham has fallen for the fifth month running.

Figures published yesterday show there are now 6,505 people claiming Job Seekers allowance (JSA) across the borough — down from 6,850 the previous month. Claimant count has fallen consistently since February when the count was 7,603.

A breakdown of the Office for National Statistics figures show more than half — 3,795 people — have been claiming the benefit for less than six months. Just 1,275 have claimed for more than a year.

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas said: “This is extremely good news but I fear that the coalition Government’s economic policy will quickly reverse that.”

Oldham West and Royton MP Michael Meacher said: “It is obviously good news to see a reduction of more than 1,000 in five months. I do find it surprising it has fallen so much. I very much hope it continues to fall but I fear it will be dramatically reversed when the spending cuts come in at the end of the year and throughout 2011.”

Nationally the number of people claiming JSA fell in June by 20,800 to 1.46 million, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Unemployment also fell by 34,000 to 2.47 million during the three months to May. At the same time, the number of people in employment increased by 160,000 in the three months to May, the biggest rise since August, 2006.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said the Government was tackling the problems of long-term benefit dependency and worklessness by reassessing people to see if they can work from 2011.

He said: “There is still a huge amount of work to do to revitalise the economy and create an environment where businesses are growing and employing people again.

“What concerns me in today’s figures is that while there are more jobs in the economy there is too little evidence of them being taken up by the five million people who were stranded on out-of-work benefits.”