The February unemployment figures came out this week.

Seasonally adjusted unemployment fell to 12.7% in Birmingham, from 12.9% in January, while it is up from 11.5% a year ago. This is over twice the national rate, which is now 5.8%. In Acocks Green the unadjusted figure rose by 5 in the month to 1,365 (or 12.3%), and is up 180 in the past year. Across Birmingham the unadjusted figures fell in the month by 37 to 51,226 or 12.8%.

Birmingham continues to have the highest unemployment of the core cities with the gap to the next worse city, Liverpool, having extended to 0.3% from 0.1% last month.

Nationally there is something odd in the figures. Unemployment has fallen in the past 3 months (by 33,000), however employment has also fallen in the same time (by 54,000) and we know the population is currently rising. The Office of National Statistics commented that the reason for this, is a rise in people who are in education, are long term sick or have given up looking for work. While the first of these reasons is mainly good (though those involved may be doing it as a second best to work), the other two are not, and all three highlight the continued weakness of the underlying economy.