UNEMPLOYMENT continued to fall across Dorset last month, new figures show.

In Bournemouth, there were 2,085 people unemployed, compared with 2,209 the previous month – representing 1.1 per cent of the population.

The figure, for people out of work and claiming benefit, was down one per cent on the same month last year.

Poole saw a fall of 0.6 per cent year on year, with 1,066 people unemployed – 1.2 per cent of the population. Other parts of the county saw falls of between 0.3 and 0.7 per cent year-on-year.

Helen Edmunds, Jobcentre Plus senior partnership manager for the Solent region, said there could be a slight rise in figures on the way because of the number of seasonal jobs in the area.

But she said: “If we do get an increase in seasonal workers, then we know that there’s work around for Christmas that will see people through.”

And she added that more jobs were expected when government-backed plans for the expansion of industrial land at Bournemouth Airport begins next year.

“We expect a lot of jobs in the support industry around the airport from around July,” she said.

She also said that there were around 5,181 in Bournemouth people out of work due to sickness and claiming employment support allowance.

“We’re providing specialised services to people who aren’t working and trying to engage with them as early as possible in their claims for employment support allowance so people don’t get entrenched in being sick,” she added.

She said the unemployment figure in Bournemouth had dropped by more than 1,000 from 2013-14. Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood said: “Unemployment is down nationally, and in Bournemouth East, down 110 from last month.”