UNEMPLOYMENT figures released for Swindon this week have met with mixed reactions.

The unemployment rate for Swindon shows the number of claimants aged 18-24 is 645, down 42 per cent compared with five years ago, and 3,285 all adults, which is down 19 per cent for the same period.

This is a slight increase of claimants compared to last year, which is seven per cent higher for 18-24 year olds and 15 per cent higher for adults than 2017.

Justin Tomlinson, MP for North Swindon, and parliamentary under-secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions said: “We have record employment, youth unemployment has halved, and the vast majority have been full-time roles as Swindon has benefitted from the growing economy since 2010.

“The reforms we’ve made to business taxes and investment in innovation and research has lent itself to accelerated business growth for which it is making a big difference in Swindon.

“We are starting to see wage growth, which will significantly help people share the benefits of a growing economy.”

Ian Larrard, director of the Swindon and Wiltshire Initiative Business West, said: “The latest employment figures show once again record numbers of people are in employment, yet we know that many working families in Swindon & Wiltshire still struggle to make ends meet.

“There were suggestions in the industrial strategy white paper that government will favour a stronger focus on job quality in future, rather than the employment rate. I welcome this change in approach, given that being in work, doesn’t necessarily mean work that it is well-paid and secure.”

Sarah Church, the parliamentary Labour candidate for South Swindon, added: “Low unemployment figures mask a host of issues: low paid and precarious agency work and zero hours contracts, both of which account for a large number of the lowest paid workers in Swindon.

“Under the Conservative government, in-work poverty has risen to more than 1 in every 8 workers and the fiasco of Universal Credit has done absolutely nothing to make work pay.”