Unemployment on Teesside has risen for the first time in ten months.
In January, 16,525 people in the area claimed Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) compared with 16,177 the previous month, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The 2.15% increase follows a fall in each of the previous nine months, with all five local authority areas seeing a rise in the number of people out of work last month.
Below the headline figures, the statistics showed some encouraging trends including a 2.3% dip in the number of people out of work for more than 12 months – classed as the long-term unemployed. Youth employment remained broadly flat, although in Redcar & Cleveland there was a small fall in the number of 18-24 year-olds out of work. The fall in the claimant count on Teesside was at odds with a more positive picture across the North-east, with unemployment in the region falling to 103,000 (8.0%) in the three months to December 31.
Nationally the jobless figure dipped by 97,000 to 1.86 million in the final quarter of 2014 - a new seven-year low. Long-term unemployment was also down, falling by 210,000 to 638,000. The UK now has the third lowest unemployment rate in the European Union at 5.7%, behind Austria (4.9%) and Germany (4.8%).
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