Berkshire Economic Commentary 2011 - December 2010/January 2011

Unemployment decreased all throughout 2010.  The year started with 16,000 unemployment claimants and ended with 13,000 claimants, a drop of 3,000 claimants in one year, a fall of 20%.  This is on a par with the South East average of 21% and better than the England average of 15%.

In terms of vacancies advertised through Job Centre Plus (which equate to roughly 40% of all available vacancies), although December 2010 saw 500 less vacancies across Berkshire than the previous month, the year still ended with over 1,000 more vacancies than it started with (rising from 2,500 in January 2010 to over 3,500 in December 2010).  This is an increase of 44%, better than the South East average (41%) and close to the England average of 46%.

This does mean, however, that Berkshire has 13,000 Job Seekers Allowance claimants chasing approximately 9,000 total vacancies.  That equates to 1.4 claimants per vacancy.