Steve Brine has warmly welcomed figures released today that show the number of people in Winchester claiming Jobseeker's Allowance and Universal Credit while not in employment fell by 527, a 65% per cent drop since 2010.
The figures show that Britain's economic plan continues to create jobs and increase pay for hardworking people in Winchester & Chandler's Ford and across the country.
With employment at its highest level ever, over 350,000 more people are in work across the UK than a year ago and unemployment is at its lowest level since 2008. In addition, business confidence in the economy is shown by nearly three quarters of a million vacancies.
The figures also show that average pay growth is now 3%, while prices are falling, meaning people have more money in their pockets. There are also more young people in work, with youth unemployment among those not in full-time study falling to its lowest level in a decade, to 6.2%.
People are getting off benefits and into work across the South East, too, with 219,000 more people in work since the last Labour Government. There are over 2 million more people across the UK now in work than at the end of thirteen years of a Labour Government.
Steve Brine said: "Obviously I am pleased Winchester has one of the highest employment rates in the country and the headline figures look very good.
"However, it's the 18-24 figure, down 30% on last year, which is really exciting. I think Winchester has a strong and proactive business focused council led by Cllr Stephen Godfrey and is developing with the employers a good mix of sectors that makes the local economy robust."
The total number of unemployed claimants in Winchester constituency in September 2015 was 288. This represents a rate of 0.6% of the economically active population aged 16 to 64, the 637th highest of the 650 UK constituencies.
