Interactive map of Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants

We’ve produced an interactive map to show how Jobseeker’s Allowance claimant rates are changing across the region in response to the recession.

Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) is the main unemployment benefit for working age people who are out of work.

Open the interactive map (requires Adobe Flash Player)
Download the dataset (XLS, 25kb)
Source: Office for National Statistics, claimant count (not seasonally adjusted)

The map allows you to see how the claimant rates have changed over the year to April 2009 and compare local authority areas with the regional and national trend.

All local authorities in the West Midlands have seen an increase in the rates of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance over the year, with rates starting to rise in July/August 2008.

Across the region the rate of claimants has increased from 3% to 5.4% of the working age population (2.4 percentage points).

In 13 local authorities within the region the percentage point increase in claimants has been greater than the regional average, with the biggest increases occuring in Cannock Chase, Redditch and Walsall.

Wolverhampton and Birmingham have the highest rates of claimants of JSA at 7.7% and 7.6% respectively.

We’ll update this map on a monthly basis as new Jobseeker’s Allowance data is released.

Monitoring the impact of the recession on the West Midlands

The Observatory produces regular updates to monitor the impact of the recession on the regional economy, the population of the West Midlands, skills and the labour market and the cultural sector.

If there are areas that you would like us to add to our recession monitoring work – or you know of other recession monitoring being done elsewhere in the region – please let us know.