Fall in unemployment welcomed

A fall in the number of unemployed people in Hull has been welcomed by the leader of Hull City Council, Councillor Carl Minns.

April's unemployment claimant figures fell by 348 to 14,541 from 14,889 in March.

Councillor Minns said: "The fact that 348 people have left the unemployment register since March is welcome news. As this is the second month we have seen the rate of unemployment declining, we can but hope that the situation is at least stabilising.

"This is encouraging news, particularly as unemployment in Britain is at its highest level in 15 years, but we will not become complacent as we know more needs to be done to help get people back into work.

"We will continue working with all our partrners to make the best use of the schemes we have in place to protect and create jobs. The Acorn Fund, operated by the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce on behalf of Hull City Council, has been a particular success with 117 businesses and 748 jobs created in the financial year 2009/10. The Fund has also safeguarded 401 jobs and assisted 216 businesses.

"Through the Grow programme, the Local Work Guarantee has so far seen 1,205 people start on programme with 803 sustainable jobs giving an outcome of 67 per cent.

"We will continue to work hard to attract more businesses and more jobs to Hull to provide a stable and brighter future for everyone."

For more information about how the Grow programme can help people and businesses visit http://www.growinhull.co.uk or contact the team on 300 300.