Unemployment by Constituency, April 2016

This paper contains claimant count figures for parliamentary constituencies, as well as a summary of the latest labour market statistics for the UK as a whole. 

• The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance or not in work and claiming Universal Credit increased by 6,700 between February 2016 and March 2016 to 732,100.

• The unemployment rate was 5.1% in December 2015-February 2016. The ILO measure of unemployment was 1.70 million people, up 21,000 from the previous quarter and down 142,000 from the previous year.

• The number of people in employment was 31.41 million in December 2015-February 2016, up 20,000 from the previous quarter and up 360,000 from the previous year. The employment rate was 74.1%, the joint highest since comparable records began in 1971. 

• Average weekly total pay in Great Britain increased by 1.8% in the three months to February 2016 compared with the previous year. Regular pay (excluding bonuses) grew by 2.2%. CPI inflation averaged 0.3% over this period.