Unemployment fell significantly in Acocks Green last month. The May unadjusted claimant count fell by 55 (making a two months fall of 92) to 875, the lowest for over 5 years. There was a particularly big fall in youth claimants – down 23 to 201 in the month (making a very welcome two month fall of 38), though the numbers of long term unemployed edged back up by 5 to 336 (leaving them just 2 down on two months ago). While the long term numbers are an area of concern, overall these are excellent figures and continue a trend which has seen a major reduction in our unemployment levels in the past couple of years. Two years ago the claimant unemployment level in Acocks Green was 1,181 – 306 higher than today.

Across Birmingham the seasonally adjusted claimant count fell by 1,102 to 38,092, a claimant rate of 7.9%. While falling, this remains higher than all other major cities in the UK. Across the city the long term claimant numbers fell by 310 and the number of youth claimants fell by 495.

Nationally, the total unemployment levels fell by 161,000 to 2.16m (a rate of 6.6%) in the three months to April. Employment grew by a record 345,000 in the same three months to 30.5m, a new peak for the economy.