Buckinghamshire’s claimant count, October 2016

By Buckinghamshire Business First
16 November, 2016

The number of out of work Buckinghamshire residents claiming either Job Seekers’ Allowance or Universal Credit rose for a third successive month in October to reach 2,725.

The number of out of work Buckinghamshire residents claiming either Job Seekers’ Allowance or Universal Credit rose for a third successive month in October to reach 2,725. Buckinghamshire’s claimant count is now at its highest level since August 2015. Over the last 12 months Buckinghamshire’s claimant count has risen by 5.6 per cent, the first year on year rise since this series began in January 2013, and well ahead of the 1.4 per cent rise recorded across Great Britain. Despite this rise, the claimant count rate was unchanged at 0.8 per cent of working age residents, ranking 3rd lowest among Local Enterprises (LEPs) and 5th lowest among the 27 county council areas.

Table 1: Claimant Count, October 2016

Source: DWP, 2016

Over the last year, 43 of Buckinghamshire’s 98 wards have seen the claimant count rise with 22 seeing a fall and 33 remaining unchanged. There are now seven wards in the county where the claimant count rate exceeds the national level, as shown on the map at the end of this bulletin, up from five in September and six in October last year. However, the ten wards with the highest claimant counts now make up 32.6 per cent of all claimants in Buckinghamshire, down from 33.1 per cent in September and 35.3 per in October 2015. The share of JSA claimants looking for work in sales occupations rose again to 54.9 per cent.

There were 5,749 advertised job openings in Buckinghamshire in October, 445 (7.2 per cent) fewer than in September but an increase of 902 (18.6 per cent) over October 2015. The most commonly advertised roles were programmers and software development professionals (235), business sales executive (198), other administrative occupations (145), chartered and certified accountants (144), web design and development professionals (142), nurses (135) and IT user support technicians (118). Human health activities (370), education (283),food and beverage service activities (253), retail (122) and social work without accommodation (102) were the industries with the most openings. The most commonly sought specialised skills were Microsoft Excel (489), customer service (439), Microsoft Excel (408) and business management (331). Communication skills (1,254), organisational skills (789), team work and collaboration (389) and being detail orientated (359) were the most sought baseline skills.