Latest unemployment figures for Eastbourne

The latest figures show in September there were 11,187 people claiming Universal Credit in Eastbourne.

This comes as the number of job vacancies in the UK hit a record high of 1.1 million in the three months to September as the labour market continues to recover from the pandemic.

Karra Brenchley, the partnership manager from the Department for Work and Pensions in Eastbourne, said, “A rise in vacancies is welcome news for jobseekers, and we’d encourage employers to work with our network of Jobcentres to find the right candidates.

“Employers can also use our Find a Job website to advertise their vacancies to a wide pool of people. We have more programmes beginning, such as Restart and JFS to link into the local economy and local labour market. So we are being innovative and we do have older worker champions, help for younger people and the Kickstart programme.

“Sector-Based Work Academy Programme has been fantastic during the pandemic. It provides up to six weeks training, working with an employer, and there is a guaranteed position at the end of that training.

“We have been working with a variety of employers to make sure we get people into growing sectors. We had a skills challenge coming into the pandemic and our Plan for Jobs aims to get the right skills for those vacancies.”

In August, the alternative claimant count – which is the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits and searching for work – stood at a total of 3,515 for Eastbourne.

For the south east, the number of people employed stands at 4.55 million which equates to 78.2 per cent – this is higher than the national average which is currently 75.3 per cent.

The next unemployment figures released will highlight the impact of the end of furlough on September 30. Between September 6–19 there was still around a million people still receiving furlough, The Times reported.