John Battle Welcomes New Low In Unemployment

John Battle, Labour MP for Leeds West, welcomed today’s unemployment figures.

“Nationally we have the lowest unemployment for a generation – you have to go back to 1975 last time this few people were signing on.

“Unemployment in Leeds as a whole is falling too – down below 11,000 now, less than half the number of people signing on than when the Labour Government came to power in 1997. And in my Leeds West constituency where more people than average in our city are out of work, unemployment is also falling and that’s very good news.

“It’s a combination of the success of Chancellor Gordon Brown in running the national economy, Leeds’s economic success, and the excellent work of the Council’s training department giving local people the skills to take up the new jobs being created by the economic growth.

“I do hope the coalition now running Leeds City Council will respect and continue to support the work that the Council has been doing for years training and skilling people for real jobs, especially at the Leeds West Family Learning Centre. People in the city of Leeds can’t afford to lose that service.”

Claimant count unemployment figures for June released today by the Office of National Statistics (www.statistics.gov.uk) show:

National claimant count unemployment fell by 9,600 to 850,900, the 13th monthly fall in a row

Leeds claimant count unemployment fell by 293 to 10,877

Leeds West claimant count unemployment fell by 61 to 1,539

©John Battle MP 15th July 2004