Latest figures released by the office for National Statistics shows Bury witnessed a big decrease in Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) Claimants from the previous month.

Claims were down 5.8% to 4,095. Bury had the highest decrease of JSA claimants (5.8%) in Greater Manchester with the combined Local Authorities total reaching 3.6%, slightly less than the UK average of 3.9%. Bury District has seen an annual decrease in JSA claimants, 10.9% combined over the past 12 months, with Moorside and Church wards of Bury seeing decreases of 23.4% and 20.7% respectively.

The total number of jobs provided by the Jobcentre Plus increased in June by 13.4% from 967 jobs to 1097. This represents an average of 27 jobs for every 100 JSA claimants. As a whole most wards saw drops in Job Centre (JCP) vacancies with 5 wards posting fewer vacancies than May. Tottington and Redvales witnessed 433% and 52.6% increases in JCP vacancies with Redvales total vacancies accumulating to 566 vacancies.

The male JSA claimant count fell by 6.0% to 2986 and the female claimant count decreased by 5.2% to 1109. Showing that male JSA claimants are staying on JSA for a shorter period and finding it easier to find jobs than female JSA claimants.

The long-term (over 6 months) JSA claimant count stood at 1,625 in Bury for June 2010, a decrease of 3.6% from May. LTU in the Ramsbottom ward dropped considerably (11.1%) implying the job vacancies created in this ward are being filled.

The youth (16 to 24 year olds) JSA claimant count stood at 1,320 in Bury for May 2010, a fall of 7.7% on the previous month. A 7.7% drop is considerably higher than both Greater Manchester and the United Kingdom. They dropped by 5.9% and 5.0% respectively. This is a considerable drop compared to May with a total claimant drop of 90. Bury has a high percentage of total youth JSA claimants against all claimants. (32.2%) Considerably higher than the UK average (27.8%) suggesting younger people are finding it harder to work in Bury than the rest of the UK. 

Vic D’Albert commented, “This is good news for Bury but there is clearly a long way to go and the Government must not become complacent on this crucial issue. In Bury’s case it may well be that the opening of the new Rock shopping centre will have had an impact – especially on youth unemployment. But we should be cautious because there is a real fear that there could be an adverse impact on the Millgate shopping centre and the old Rock area which could lead to a reduction in jobs there, possibly cancelling out some of this improvement.Nevertheless this is an improvement in local fortunes that should be welcomed.”