Acocks Green’s Claimant Unemployment level fell to 750 in September. The figure was down 26 on August and down by 282 on a year ago. The level of long term unemployed in the ward bucked the trend; rising by 2 to 300, though it is still well down on the year. Meanwhile, the level of youth claimants fell by 3 to 190, which is down 74 in the past year.

Nationally, unemployment fell below 2 million for the first time since 2008. The annual fall of 538,000 is the largest annual fall since records began. The numbers in work reached 30.76 million, while the proportion of those aged 16-64 in work reached 73%, close to its all time record of 73.2%. Youth unemployment fell by 88,000 to 733,000.