Fewer claiming benefits in South Tyneside

The number of people claiming benefits in South Tyneside fell by over 2,000 last month, according to new figures.
Fewer claiming benefitsFewer claiming benefits
Fewer claiming benefits

Office of National Statistics (ONS) data shows 6,070 people were on out-of-work benefits in the area as of December 9 – down by 2,145 from the month before.

That means meant 6.5% of the area's working population sought support in December.

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The figures include those aged 16 to 64 on Jobseeker’s Allowance and some Universal Credit claimants, who are unemployed or employed but on low earnings.

Figures also show that Thousands more workers in Tyne and Wear joined company payrolls in December.

The ONS say an estimated 363,179 people in the area were on company payrolls in December - 2,509 more than in November.

That was up from 343,523 in December 2020 and above pre-pandemic levels – with 350,777 workers recorded on company payrolls in December 2019.

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Nationally, the number of workers on payrolls jumped by a record 184,000, to 29.5 million.

Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: “Those reporting they’d recently been made redundant fell to their lowest since records began more than a quarter of a century ago and job vacancies reached a new high in the last quarter of 2021.

The data also shows average monthly salaries on Tyneside rose from £1,896 in November to £1,919 at the end of the year.

Nationally average wage growth including bonuses was 4.2% in the three months to November but, with inflation hitting 5.1% in November, this failed to keep up with the rising cost of living.