The unemployed claimant count rose slightly for the second month in a row, according to official figures released on the same day as the budget.
The number of people claiming jobseekers allowance in the area served by Brighton and Hove City Council rose to 3,540 in February from 3,520 in January.
The figure for December was 3,445 although in February last year the number of claimants in Brighton and Hove stood at 4,790. This represented 2.4 per cent of the working age population compared with 1.8 per cent last month.
The south east average is 1.3 per cent while the average for Great Britain as a whole is 2 per cent.
The figures were published on Wednesday 18 March.
The number of 18 to 24-year-old claimants rose to 800 from 740 in January although down from the 1,100 in February last year.
In the Brighton Kemptown parliamentary constituency the claimant count rose for the fourth month running to 1,319 last month from 1,311 in January and 1,256 in October. But the number stood at 1,755 in February last year.
The number of people out of work and claiming jobseekers allowance for more than six months was 440 in February, with 260 of those claiming for more than a year.
The number of 16 to 24-year-old claimants was 320.
In the Brighton Pavilion parliamentary constituency the number of claimants also rose marginally to 1,225 from 1,205 in January. A year earlier the figure was 1,683.
The number of people claiming for more than six months was 365 and of those 215 had been claiming for more than a year.
The number of 16 to 24-year-old claimants was 295.
In Hove the number of claimants fell slightly to 1,245 in February from 1,249 in January, having climbed for three months. The number in February last year was 1,667.
The number of people claiming for more than six months was 375 and of those 220 had been claiming for more than a year.
The number of 16 to 24-year-old claimants was 245.
Claimant numbers only fell because they routinely put claimants on sanctions for all manner of Kafkaesque reasons, not because people were getting proper jobs.
Obviously some of the Job Centre “Plus” staff have been failing to meet their sanctioning targets of late. After all, there’s only so many vulnerable adults you can make homeless before you begin to run out of targets.