UK unemployment fell by 167,000 in the three months to December to 2.32m or 7.1%, the lowest since early 2009. This was driven by a huge increase in employment, up 280,000 in the three months, more than outweighing the growth in the size of the workforce in the same period. Total employment now stands at 30.15 million – an all time record. The fall in unemployment was broadly based, with youth unemployment falling by 39,000 to 920,000 and the West and East Midlands seeing the biggest regional falls.

In Birmingham the seasonally adjusted claimant count fell by 230 to 42,196 and the rate fell by 0.1% to 9.2%. The unadjusted count fell by 408 to 41,273 or 9.0%, which compares to 10.5% a year ago.

Here in Acocks Green, unemployment fell by 13 to 945. This represents a fall of 228 in the past year. Put another way, a net 1 in 5 of those unemployed this time last year in Acocks Green are now in work. Our fall  this month was driven by a big reduction in the number of youth claimants, which fell by 24 to 219, while those unemployed for more than a year rose by 7 to 611 339 (see comment below) reversing some of last month’s big fall.