Rugby’s unemployment down 71%

Last month, April 2015, the number of people who were unemployed and claiming job seekers allowance in Rugby fell by 16 to 598.

April 2015 was the last full month of the Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition and the figures for this month can be compared to the last full month of a Labour government, April 2010, when the number of people in Rugby who were unemployed and claiming job seekers allowance was 2,046. Coalition economic policy reduced unemployment in Rugby by 71%.

Figures produced by the Office of National Statistics show the benefit of the last five years of stable government - unemployment, inflation and the gap between taxation and government spending are all down. Employment, and despite Labour's scare stories about "zero-hours" contracts in Rugby this includes full-time employment, are all up.

With the government threatening a referendum on Britain leaving the European Union uncertainty hangs over the next two years. Whilst the Tories dither on Britain's future in the world major businesses such as Alstom, Gap, Jaguar Land Rover and the London Taxi company many well hesitate before making further major investments in our area.

Note the number of people claiming job seekers allowance is the only measure of unemployment that is available monthly. An alternative estimate of the number of people unemployed in Rugby would include the number of people who are looking for work but who do not claim job seekers allowance. These figures are only available once a quarter. These figures have not yet been published for the last quarter of the Coalition government but are likely to be about half the number of people unemployed on this measure in the last full year of the Labour government (ie April 2009 to March 2010) when the number of people unemployed was 3,600.