Great Yarmouth continuing to buck the trend as unemployment falls again

In September, the number of young people signing on decreased by exactly a quarter, from 160 to 120 people.

This trend continued in October, with that figure now standing at 90, according to the latest figures released by the department for work and pensions.

When compared with the same month in 2015, the drop is even steeper. In October of last year, 345 people in this age group were claiming jobseeker’s allowance, meaning the number has fallen by 73.9pc.

Taking all age groups into account, 85 fewer people are out of work, with September’s figure of 705, now standing at 620.

In October 2015, this figure was 1,460, equating to a year-on-year drop of 57.5pc.

However, the figures for October 2015 were followed by a spike the following month, when an additional 215 people found themselves out of work in November 2015.

Stephen Lankester, district operations leader for the DWP, however, believes the figures will continue to improve, despite summer seasonal work coming to an end.

He said: “I think there is now a better relationship between the job centre and employers - the picture is positive.

“We may have just had seasonal work end, but lots of those people are picking up Christmas jobs in the meantime.

“We are seeing more work created in the hotel and catering industry due to Christmas parties, as well as retailers taking on festive staff.”

Despite the decrease, Mr Lankester still feels more can be done by the job centre, not only to ensure people out of work get back into it, but those who are working, are able to do so more often.

“There is always more that can be done to get people working more hours,” he said. “We are trying to build more relationships with businesses and quicken the process of getting people that come to the job centre in work.”

The figures buck the overall trend for the East of England, which has seen 29,000 more people out of work between July and September.