Dole queue trebles in Bath
Government statistics show the number of people out of work in Bath has more than trebled in the last year.
There were 1,505 people out of work and claiming benefit in the Bath Parliamentary constituency last month - 2.3 per cent of the working population and up from 484 in January 2009.
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The national unemployment rate is 4.3 per cent.
Across Bath and North East Somerset, the number of people on the dole leapt from 752 last year to 2,508 - giving the area a 2.2 per cent jobless rate.
Nationally, the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance soared by 23,500 last month to reach the highest level since Labour came to power in 1997.
The claimant count increased to 1.64 million in January, the worst figure since April 1997.
Long-term unemployment, covering those out of work for more than a year, increased by 37,000 in the quarter to December to 663,000, also the highest figure since 1997.
In B&NES, jobs have been axed at accident assistance firm Helphire - which recently announced it was closing its call centre in Bath after shedding hundreds of other staff, Wessex Water and the Cadbury plant at Keynsham.
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by PW, Bath
Tuesday, February 23 2010, 12:08PM
“Evidently I was unlucky and got one of the 'peculiar characters'!”
by Paul Wiltshire, Deputy editor
Thursday, February 18 2010, 7:58AM
“David: It was a short, sharp campaign to deliver what we hoped was a message of hope - that at least some sectors of the economy are glass half-full rather than glass half-empty. There's some regional second cousins of the campaign bubbling along which we're reflecting in our business pages on a regular basis but in the back of our minds was the fear that people may have had enough of seeing and hearing the r-word (recession or recovery) at every turn.”
by MissFortune, Bath
Thursday, February 18 2010, 12:08AM
“Re PW's comments, I had the misfortune of being unemployed for a few months last year. Apart from a few peculiar characters, I found most of the staff there friendly, sincere and doing their best to help. Quite a lot of the staff seem to have come from other professions - an effect of the recession, I guess.
It's not fun signing on, but I would urge people to get down there asap if they find themselves out of work as it's hard to get benefits backdated and it often takes longer than you think to get work again.
All the very best of luck to everyone out there looking, especially those who lost their jobs at Helphire recently - hope you all find another job soon!”
by David, Bath
Wednesday, February 17 2010, 11:29PM
“Not sure this is an opportune time to ask, but whatever happened to the Chronicle's "Bath Bites Back" campaign?”
by withane, Bath
Wednesday, February 17 2010, 5:19PM
“N Obody, your post seems confused. You refer to taxes chrged by B&NES on properties causing unemployment. The only tax B&NES charges is Council tax, which is on residential properties so no effect on employment.
If you mean Business rates then this tax/rate is set by the wonderful Government, the Council collects it then passes it all to the Govt, who then decide how little they return to the Council is part of the settlement, which i believe has been reported on here before as not being as much as the government calculate B&NES should receive.
Suprised there is no link between this story and the others on the website that in addition to this increase in unemployment, B&NES are now making up to 100 extra people unemployed.”