Hundreds more on dole as county bucks trend

Business Editor claimant count.

Maidstone recorded the highest increase of 70 to 1,240, closely followed by Thanet, which was up 55 to 2,680.

Tunbridge Wells, the borough with Kent’s lowest numbers on jobless benefits, recorded the third highest increase of 50 to 575.

Sittingbourne Jobcentre operations manager Mike Ellett said he was surprised by the Kent figures.

“I work with managers of the 15 Jobcentres across the county and we have had no conversations about any particular challenges,” he said.

“My perception is it’s quite buoyant.

“We are getting vacancies coming through the door and it doesn’t feel like it did a few years ago when we were struggling to get employers to come in the office.

“At the moment there is plenty out there, particularly in the service sector.”

The only fall was in Swale, where 20 people left the dole queue, bringing its total to 1,870.

In Gravesham, the number of people on unemployment benefits remained flat at 1,285.

Elsewhere, there were significant increases of 45 in Canterbury and Dartford to 1,290 and 795 respectively, the latter having Kent’s third lowest total.

Ashford’s jobless benefit total grew 40 to 1,140, with Dover, Medway and Tonbridge and Malling all up 30 to 1,345, 3,485 and 725 respectively.

Modest rises were seen in Shepway, up 25 to 1,355 and Sevenoaks, up 15 to 535.

Across the UK, the unemployment rate was 4.9%, the lowest since July to September 2005.

There were 31.77 million people in work, giving the nation an employment rate of 74.5%, the joint highest since comparable records began in 1971.

Regionally, the highest employment rate in the UK was in the South East at 78.3%. It had an unemployment rate of 3.5%.

Unemployment is up for the second month in a row