Encouraging signs for the county’s economy with drop in unemployed in Worthing, Shoreham and Littlehampton

BUSINESS leaders have welcomed a drop in unemployment across the county in the last three months.

According to the latest ONS statistics, the figures fell by just over 1,000 people in Sussex –within Adur, there were 2,200 uemployed people, 1,960 in Worthing and 1,000 in Shoreham.

The figures in Arun showed 2,264 people unemployed, equalling a rate of 2.7 of the working age population.

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Deputy Leader of Worthing Borough Council Bryan Turner said there were “encouraging signs” within the area’s economy.

While acknowledging there were areas that were under strain, including the retail sector, he believed the outlook for the employment market was promising.

Wendy Bell, general manager at Sussex Enterprise, welcomed the downward trend.

She said: “The latest Sussex job market figures are encouraging and act as a welcome contrast to recent pessimism about the economy. But there are still areas of concern.

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“Nationally, youth unemployment is unacceptably high, and too many people are still being forced to work part-time as they cannot find a full-time job.

“In contrast, other ONS figures show three consecutive GDP declines since the end of 2011 and it is clear that growth in the UK economy is still too weak. Problems in the eurozone and tough austerity measures will continue to exert downward pressures on domestic demand.”

- see next week’s Business Matters within the Herald and Gazette series for an employment feature