THE number of people in work has continued to increase in Worcester.

With both KFC and Wilko opening in the city, the number of claiming unemployment benefit has reduced by 45 since this time last year to 975, although it is unchanged since last month.

The number of people claiming unemployment benefit in city aged between 18 and 24 is 220, a reduction of 35 since last year and of 10 in the last month.

Kirsty Dee, of Worcester Jobs Centre said that the centre hope that a new Greene King pub in Bluebell Farm will help to provide 70 new jobs.

MP for Worcester, Robin Walker said: “It is fantastic news that Worcester has managed to sustain such a consistently low unemployment rate, with the figures from October being only the second time since records began that local unemployment has remained under 1,000 for four consecutive months.

"If that is maintained in November then that will mark a record period of sustained progress on tackling joblessness.

“With the majority of the increases in employment coming from full-time, permanent work, and with average hourly earnings in Worcester continuing to out-perform the national average, this puts paid to the notion proposed by some that these figures have only come about through precarious employment.

"The reality is that the opposite is true – with 20,000 fewer workers on zero hour contracts this year, this type of work represents an increasingly tiny proportion of the workforce.”

“With more vacancies opening in some sectors in the run-up to Christmas, I am confident we will see these trends continuing in the coming months.”

In Wychavon, the number of people claiming unemployment benefit stayed the same as last year at 645, a 15 reduction since the previous month.

In the 18-24 category, there was an increase of five claiming benefits, from 145 to 150.

In Evesham, a sector-based academy course took place to help jobseekers learn skills, helping them get employment, with a guaranteed interview at the end.

In Malvern Hills District, 450 people are on unemployment benefit, a rise of 10 since this time last year and since last month and 550 down on five years ago.

In the 18-24 category, it is a decline of 20 since last year to 120 but this is a rise of 10 since last month.

Ms Dee added that Making Warehouse were opening a storeroom in Malvern Hills Retail Park, creating five vacancies.

She added that Marstons are working with jobs centres in the county to employ more people on unemployment benefits.

Nationally, unemployment is down 59,000 on the quarter and is at the lowest rate since 1975.

The employment rate is at a near record of 75.0 percent with 32 million people in work.