Aberdeen tops table in UK rise of unemployment benefits

Union Street, Aberdeen

THE Granite City shares top spot with Glasgow, Norwich and Slough in a league table of UK towns and cities seeing the biggest month-on-month increase in people claiming unemployment-related benefits.

Thinktank the Centre for Cities said the number of people making such claims in Aberdeen grew by 0.4% in July.

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It came as official new labour market figures showed Scotland’s unemployment rate rose to 4.5% last month, with 124,000 people out of work – up from 113,000 in June.

The number of people in work fell by 15,000 between April and June as the impact of lockdown hit.

The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work north of the border fell over the quarter to 74.3%, or more than 2.6 million, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Claims for Universal Credit (UC) in Aberdeen grew 4.7% last month, to 16,203. UC claims in Aberdeenshire grew 3.3% to 13,499.

A Centre for Cities spokesman said: “Every large city and town has seen an increase in unemployment claims since last month.

“The increase ranges from less than 0.1 percentage point in Derby, Mansfield and Warrington to 0.4 percentage points in Aberdeen, Slough and Glasgow.

“It is likely the furlough is still protecting many people from becoming unemployed – it is too early to assess how the phasing out of the scheme will affect people’s job opportunities.”

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