UNEMPLOYMENT in Sussex is down, new figures released today reveal.

All three unitary authority areas have shown a fall in the numbers out of work but Brighton's level is still above the national average.

In December last year, 7,670 people in the Brighton and Hove area were out of work and claiming benefit, a jobless rate of six per cent.

The national average was four per cent.

The figure represented a fall of 898 people on the same month the previous year.

East Sussex had 6,540 people out of work in December, or 3.6 per cent, and this was down by 1,036 or 0.6 per cent.

West Sussex recorded 5,860 jobless claimants, representing 1.6 per cent of the workforce and a drop of 539 people on the previous year's figure, or 0.1 per cent.

Nationally dole queues fell to their lowest levels for 20 years as new figures showed a record number of people in work.

The monthly claimant count dropped by 21,900 in December to 1,164,400, a jobless rate of four per cent, which is the best since January 1980.

But the International Labour Organisation unemployment total, which includes people not eligible for benefit, increased by 11,000 between September and November last year to 1.726 million, a rate of 5.9 per cent.

ILO figures for the South East region of England recorded a slight improvement for September to November last year of 0.3 per cent compared to the previous year.

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