Jobless total falls steadily (From Western Telegraph)

Jobless total falls steadily

Despite the number of jobless in Pembrokeshire increasing by 75 during December, the county is still recording the best year-on-year improvements in the unemployment rate for any Welsh local authority.

The latest figures show that the greatest improvement is in the south of the county. Some 2,275 people were out of work in December, an increase of 5.2% over the previous month but down by 585 over the corresponding period in 2000.

Pembrokeshire County Councils inward investment officer, Tony Streatfield, said part of the increase could be attributed to seasonal factors and the redundancies at the DPS factory in Pembroke Dock.

He went on: The slight fall in unemployment in Haverfordwest - down by 4.8% to 1,106 - confirms the difficulties expressed in the High Street where retailers reported it difficult to recruit seasonal staff.

We can expect to see unemployment continue to rise over the next month or so as other announced redundancies work, such as at Co-operative in Haverfordwest, work their way through to the JobCentres. Despite these anticipated increases, we expect the new figures to still be a significant reduction on last year.

In the past two years there has been far less of a seasonal effect than in previous years.

It is thought the Call Centre at the Cleddau Bridge Business Park has been the main reason for this change. The centre has a slight seasonal shift towards the winter period and this helps to off-set the traditional pattern.