The Unemployment figures up to the end of October have been published and show a continuing slow fall. The national seasonally adjusted claimant totals fell by 3,700 to 1.465,400, while the Birmingham figures fell by 129 to 45,815. This is a rate of 11.3% and compares to 12.7% a year ago. We remain the City with the highest unadjusted unemployment rates of all major english cities, but are now only marginally worse than Liverpool and pretty close to Manchester too.

In Acocks Green unadjusted unemployment fell (by 3) to 1,184, made up of 837 men (13.5% claimant rate) and 347 women (6.8% claimant rate). This is 156 below this time last year. Across the City all wards have seen a fall over the past year, with Quinton having the biggest fall of 240 and Edgbaston the smallest fall of 12.