Rob has hailed this week’s official figures showing the largest quarterly drop in national unemployment since 1997, and the second largest since records began in 1971.
The number of people out of work in Britain fell by 167,000 in the three months to November of last year, leaving the total rate at 7.1% (down by 0.3% from the previous quarter). The number of people in work rose 280,000 to 30.15m, breaking the record for the third consecutive month. The number of people aged 16 to 64 classed as "economically inactive", including those who had given up looking for work, fell by 22,000 to 8.93m in the period.
In Reading East, the number of people claiming unemployment benefit was stable between November and December 2013. The number of claimants in Reading East during December was 1,297 - 699 lower than in the same month a year earlier.
Rob welcomed the figures, saying:
“Today’s record-breaking unemployment figures are another sign that the Government’s long-term plan to fix the British economy is working. People in East Reading and across the country can start to have real confidence about their own prospects. Britain is growing faster than any other major economy in Europe and the economy is creating jobs and opportunities for people once again.
“There is absolutely no room for complacency and I will continue to do everything I can locally and at Westminster to help promote growth and jobs now and in the long term. I’m going to continue to organise the hugely-popular Reading Job Fairs, and hopefully we will soon see the Government announce its approval for the Maiden Erlegh free school, which would be a huge boost to the education and skills of local young people alongside Reading UTC. I would also encourage anyone with a suggestion of how we can create jobs to get in touch and work with me so we can put it into action.
“But it is becoming increasingly clear that the worst thing we could do now as a country is to change government and bring back the Labour party who got us into such a dire mess in the first place.”