UNEMPLOYMENT continued to rise in Ipswich last month as the national jobless total hit a new 17-year high, official figures revealed today.

The number of people claiming the Jobseeker’s Allowance across the UK grew by 1,200 in December to 1.6million, with the 10th consecutive month increase taking the figure to its highest for a year

And total unemployment, including those not eligible for benefit, increased by 118,000 in the three months to November to 2.68million – its worst since the summer of 1994.

In Ipswich, the unemployment rate (benefit claimants as a percentage of the total workforce) grew by 0.1% of a percentage point, with the claimant count rising by 64 to 4,207, representing a rate of 5.0%.

The rate also grew by 0.1% in the Babergh district, where the count rose by 30 to 1,257, a rate of 2.5%.

But a smaller rise in Suffolk Coastal, up 11 to 1,457, left the rate unchanged at 2.0%, and in Mid Suffolk the count bucked the wider trend by falling by 19 compared with November to 1,184, representing a rate of 2.0%, down 0.1% on the previous month.

Across Suffolk as a whole, the claimant count of 13,622 was 229 higher compared with November, with the unemployment rate rising from 3.0% to 3.1%.