Unemployment continued its fall last month with national seasonally adjusted claimant unemployment falling by 27,600 to 1,215,700. In Birmingham it fell by 244 to 41,952. Seasonal adjustment of the figures takes into account the fact that unemployment normally falls in some months (such as November and December with temporary Christmas jobs available) and rises in others (such as January when such jobs end). So the seasonally adjusted figures give you a better idea of the underlying trend than the unadjusted figures. In Birmingham the difference between the two figures is illustrated by the unadjusted figures which rose by 673 – compared with the adjusted figures falling by 244.

The monthly ward figures in Birmingham are only available in unadjusted form. In the absence of seasonal adjusting, its useful to compare them with the figures from 12 months before, which I often do in this blog. For Acocks Green the unadjusted monthly figures rose by 22 to 967, which is 237 down on a year ago. Within that figure, youth unemployment rose 4 to 223 (down 93 on a year ago) and long term unemployment rose 5 to 344 (down 32 on a year ago).