Last month, unemployment fell significantly for the third month in a row in Acocks Green. In June the unadjusted claimant count fell by 47 (making a three month fall of 139) to 828, which is 286 down on a year ago. The level of youth claimants was up 1 to 202; hopefully no more than a pause for breath after its recent sharp fall. The number of long term unemployed fell by 13 to 323.

Across Birmingham, the seasonally adjusted claimant count fell by 938 to 37,021, a claimant rate of 7.7%. Across the city the long term claimant numbers fell by 335 and the number of youth claimants fell by 420.

Nationally, the total unemployment levels fell by 121,000 to 2.12m (a rate of 6.5%) in the three months to April. Employment grew by 254,000 in the same three months to 30.64m, a new peak for the economy and 929,000 up on a year ago.