Jobless figure tumbles by 324

Oldham’s unemployment has fallen in the past month in line with national trends,

The number of people out of work in the borough is 6,303, a drop of 324 of the previous month — a big improvement on the fall of 32 in the previous figures.

There are 4,574 men out of work, compared with 4,821 the previous month, and 1,729 women, a fall of 77.

These figures represent 4.6 per cent of the working population, above the national (3.5 per cent) and regional (3.9 per cent) averages and are the fourth highest in Greater Manchester behind Rochdale (5.1 per cent), Manchester (5 per cent) and Salford (4.7 per cent).

Nationally, unemployment has fallen by 9,000, but the number of people working part–time because they could not find a full–time job has reached a record high.

Around 1.15 million people had part–time jobs or were self-employed after failing to find a full–time position, an increase of 67,000 over the quarter to September and the highest total since records began in 1992.

Part–timers increased by 94,000 to 18.17 million, while self–employment rose by 112,000 to a record high of 4.03 million.

Unemployment fell to 2.45 million, although the number of people out of work for longer than a year jumped by 20,000 to 817,000 and there was a similar rise in those out of a job for more than six months.

The numbers claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance fell by 3,700 last month to 1.47 million, the first monthly fall since July.

The Office for National Statistics reports this is the first time the claimant count and the wider measure of unemployment had fallen together since the summer.

There was also a fall in the number of people classed as economically inactive, including those looking after a sick relative or having given up looking for work. The figure was 83,000 down over the latest quarter to 9.27 million.

There was a 167,000 rise in employment to 29.19 million, including the 94,000 rise in part–timers.

The number of full–time workers fell by 62,000 to reach 18.17 million, while part–time employment was almost eight million, up by 142,000 from the quarter to June. Of this total, two million were men and almost six million were women.