Unemployment by Constituency, April 2012

The number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance increased by 3,600 between February and March 2012 to 1.61 million people aged 18 or over. The wider ILO measure of unemployment was 2.65 million in the period December-February 2012, a decrease of 35,000 from the last quarter – the first quarterly fall since the three months to May 2011. The number of people who have been unemployed for longer than twelve months increased by 26,000 over the last quarter, to 883,000 in December-February 2012 – this is the highest figure since 1996.