Number of jobless is highest since 1997

NEWS that jobless numbers in North East Lincolnshire have reached their highest since 1997, have been branded "disappointing" by Grimsby's MP.

The Office For National Statistics said yesterday the number of people claiming jobseekers' allowance (JSA) in the region reached 6,657 in January, up almost 200 from December.

And with more than seven per cent of the local working age population now receiving the benefit, the claimant count is at its highest since the spring of 1997.

The news comes despite this week's announcement that leading chilled food manufacturers Daniels Group, best known for the New Covent Garden soup range, has taken over the vacated Mariner Foods plant on Grimsby's Europarc, bringing 200 new jobs to town.

On the same day, we revealed the nature and extent of hundreds of jobs that will be created in the next 20 years as more wind farms could be built in the North Sea.

The benefit of those announcements to jobseekers will not be reflected in unemployment statistics until later on in the year.

Grimsby MP Austin Mitchell said the increase was "disappointing but predictable".

Read more of his comments, along with those of employment minister Jim Knight, in today's Grimsby Telegraph.