UNEMPLOYMENT has fallen across Dorset, with 1,500 fewer people claiming jobseekers allowance in Bournemouth and Poole alone.

Bournemouth had both the highest unemployment rate in the county and the largest percentage drop.

There were 2,002 people claiming jobseekers allowance in December, around 1.6 per cent of the working age population. The figure was down from 2.4 per cent last year.

In Poole, there were 987 claiming the benefit, a rate of 1.1 per cent – down from 1.7 per cent last year.

In Christchurch, 257 people were on benefit, or one per cent of the working age population, down from 1.6 per cent.

Sam Smith, manager with Jobcentre Plus in Bournemouth, said there were encouraging prospects for job-hunters.

“We’ve got a lot going on in the area. We’ve got the Hilton Hotel building going on at the moment and in Poole there’s going to be a large McDonald’s that will need about 96 staff,” she said.

“We’ve got a varied labour market. We have a good hospitality industry, retail, care industry, we’ve got a lot of variety and excellent transport links. We’ve got a really good buoyant labour market.”

She said 73 per cent of people claiming jobseekers allowance locally came off it within 13 weeks.

The December figures are unlikely to reflect the impact of 240 people being laid off at Poole’s Sunseeker just before Christmas, or at least 30 people who were out of work after the collapse of City Link at the end of the month.

The claimant figures for the rest of the county were: East Dorset 257 (0.6 per cent, down 0.4 per cent); North Dorset 236 (0.6 per cent, down 0.4 per cent), Purbeck 235 (0.9 per cent, down 0.3 per cent), West Dorset 350 (0.6 per cent, down 0.3 per cent); Weymouth and Portland 745 (1.9 per cent, down 0.7 per cent).

In the New Forest, the figure was 814 or 0.8 per cent of the population, which is down 0.5 per cent.

Nationally, the number of jobseekers fell by 58,000 to 1.91m, its lowest level for more than six years, in the three months to November.

Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: “The drop in unemploy-ment is welcome news. Behind the statistics are stories of people finding self-respect and purpose in life.”

But Paul Kenny, GMB union general secretary, said: “The ‘jobs factory’ in Britain the Prime Minister talks about is creating mainly low-skilled, low-paid and precarious jobs that reflect economic growth linked to the growth in the population.”