The number of people from Brighton and Hove who are claiming benefits because they cannot find a job has risen again.
Claimant count figures released this morning (Tuesday 13 October) show that 14,510 people were receiving jobseeker’s allowance or universal credit because they were out of work last month.
The September figure is a rise of 300 compared with August and almost 10,000 more than September last year when the figure was 5,240.
The figure almost doubled at the start of the coronavirus lockdown, rising from 5,860 in March to 10,335 in April as businesses were ordered to close.
The number of people claiming out-of-work benefits is more than at any time since September 1996 – higher even than at any point during the financial crash of 2007-08 and the recession that followed.
The claimant count rate for Brighton and Hove is 7 per cent – up from 2.8 per cent before the lockdown. The south east average is 5.4 per cent and the England average is 6.5 per cent.
The number of 18 to 24-year-olds claiming out-of-work benefits in Brighton and Hove is 2,935 – just over 20 per cent.
The number of 25 to 49-year-olds claiming is 8,435 – or 58 per cent. And the number of over-50s claiming is 3,120 – or 21.5 per cent.
Men make up 8,590 of local claimants – or almost 60 per cent.
In the year to June some 163,800 people had jobs in Brighton and Hove, with 133,800 working as employees while 29,700 were self-employed.
