The number of people claiming benefits in lockdown Leicester has risen faster than the 海角视频 average – and continues to rise, more than doubling since the start of the year.
New figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest 7.1 per cent of the adult working population were on benefits last month – compared to a 海角视频 average of 6.3 per cent.
Back in January the figures were less than half that at 3.2 per cent and 2.9 per cent respectively.
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In the rest of Leicestershire, most of which is outside the localised lockdown zone, the claimant rate was 4.1 per cent in June, up from 1.6 per cent in January.
While the number of claims in the county and wider 海角视频 dipped marginally last month, the number in the city was up again.
Combined figures for the city and county revealed that 34,485 people were claiming unemployment benefit this June – slightly down on the 34,830 people in May.
It compares to 14,460 claimants in Leicester and Leicestershire at the start of the year.
Nationally the number of claimants has risen from 1.2 million in January to 2.6 million last month. However it was down by 35,865 people compared to May.
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Roger Matthews, a team leader for Jobcentre Plus in Leicestershire, said there were jobs out there – in areas such as distribution, warehousing and health care.
Currently, he said, there were 1,148 jobs advertised in Leicester and Leicestershire.
He said the Jobcentre has also launched a new site called Jobhelp designed to help jobseekers across the 海角视频 “springboard” their search.
He said: “Despite the disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak, there are still jobs out there to apply to. DWP are here to help people get started.
“The new site highlights latest vacancies and recruitment drives in expanding sectors like logistics, care, food retail and agriculture, and helps jobseekers recognise the value they can bring to new roles.
“It’s hard to say what will happen in Leicester over the next few months – we’ve been trying to second guess things all the way through the lockdown.
“But we have not seen a dramatic increase in claims during the extended lockdown.
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“And we have still been having jobs coming in, so it’s very hard to gauge the long-term effects.
“We are doing a lot around youth unemployment at the moment, with video calls and webinars and there is a lot of information to help them find a job. We are really pushing apprenticeships as well.
“There have also been some real success stories with people being laid off and then finding work.”
He said the Leicester Jobcentre Plus is holding a virtual careers fair on July 31 aimed at young people aged 18-24. It is being promoted on Twitter to companies with jobs on offer using the hashtag #FindYourFutureFit.
Despite that one charity has warned the future looks bleak without further government intervention.
Sara Willcocks, head of communications at national poverty charity Turn2us, said: “It is now clear that we are heading for an intense period of high unemployment.
“Without intervention this will lead to mass personal debt, rising homelessness and increasing numbers of families going hungry.
“Whether you are losing your job on a London high-street, or in a tourist town like Blackpool, it is vital that you are not left to sink into poverty.
“The government introduced the furlough scheme to help millions of people keep their jobs at the height of the pandemic – they must now double down to protect people through the second phase of this crisis.
“We urge the DWP to increase social security spending, eliminate the five week wait for Universal Credit and ensure that benefit conditionality is flexible to claimant’s needs and opportunities in their area.”
The benefit claimant count is a combination of claimants of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) and claimants of Universal Credit (UC) who fall within the UC ‘searching for work’ conditionality.
It includes some people that are still working a small number of hours and earning a little, but who are claiming UC and are required to look for work as part of that.
It also does not include everyone who is out of work, since not everyone is entitled to claim assistance, but it does indicate the trend in the employment market.
Minister for Employment Mims Davies MP said: “We know that people are worried about their livelihoods which is why we’ve put in place a Plan for Jobs.
“A crucial part of that is doubling the number of frontline Work Coaches so that every jobseeker gets support to find work as well as launching the Kickstart scheme to create hundreds of thousands of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people across the country.”