Unemployment by Constituency, May 2012

The number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance decreased by 13,700 between March and April 2012 to 1.59 million people aged 18 or over. The wider ILO measure of unemployment was 2.63 million in the period January-March 2012, a decrease of 45,000 from the last quarter, but 170,000 higher than the same period a year ago. The number of people who have been unemployed for longer than twelve months increased by 27,000 over the last quarter and rose by 38,000 over the past year, to 887,000 in January-March 2012. This is the highest figure since 1996. Average weekly total pay rose by 0.6% in the period January-March 2012 in Great Britain compared with the same period a year ago, the lowest rate of growth since spring 2009.