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Employment in South East remains high despite national fall

The unemployment rate in the United Kingdom, for the 3 months ending May 2015, was lowest in the South East (4.4%).

According to figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) released today, The Claimant Count rate in the United Kingdom, for June 2015, was lowest in the South East and South West (1.3%).

The report shows the highest average actual weekly hours worked, for the 12 months ending March 2015, were in London and Northern Ireland, both at 33.3 hours. For full-time workers, it was highest in London and the East of England.

Workforce jobs, the metric the ONS uses to measure the number of jobs filled in the economy, increased in 8 of the 12 regions of the United Kingdom between December 2014 and March 2015. The largest increase of 40,000 was in the West Midlands, followed by the East of England, which increased by 36,000. The largest decrease of 32,000 was in the South East, followed by Yorkshire and The Humber, which decreased by 5,000.

Overall, UK unemployment increased in this period for the first time in two years.

Employment Minister Priti Patel told Sky News said: “We have to look at the figures not just on the quarter but over the last year, where employment actually rose by over a quarter of a million, so this is also a reflection of the strength of our economy, the fact that our economic recovery is well on track.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .