Job centres are seeing fewer customers

Jobless Total Falls as More School-Leavers Find Work

It was the 17th consecutive monthly fall in the seasonally-adjusted total, now at its lowest level since September 1980.

The Office for National Statistics said a significant factor in the jobless fall was a drop in the number of students leaving full-time education and claiming benefit compared with a year ago.

The fall in the jobless total was welcomed by the Education and Employment Minister, Baroness Blackstone. However, she stressed that the problem of long-term youth unemployment still had to be beaten and insisted that the Government's welfare-to-work programme had an important role to play.

She said: "This is another welcome drop in the jobless total, particularly the indications that more school and college leavers are finding work."

Unemployment figures since 1992