ECONOMIC warning bells are ringing after unemployment shot up by 500 in December, giving a year-on-year increase in the county of nearly 4,000.

The jobless total for Kent and Medway in the four weeks to December 8 went up by 488 to 20,435. Respective rises in Kent and Medway were 406 (to 16,331) and 82 (to 4,104).

The number of people out of work and claiming benefit in Kent has gone up by 3,122 in the past year. In Medway, it has risen by 676, giving a combined increase across the county of 3,798.

Rising unemployment is usually a sign of difficult economic times and the signs have been around for several months of a squeeze in the labour market.

Nationally, unemployment is rising at its fastest rate for 13 years. Employment rates and average earnings increases fell.

Across the UK, a further 111,000 joined the dole queue in the three months to December, catapulting the overall unemployment rate to five per cent. The claimant count was 909,000, up 7,200 from the previous month.

Kent’s jobless rate stood at two per cent, and Medway’s at 2.6 per cent.

Just two of the county’s 12 districts defied the trend by posting jobless falls - Dartford (down 13) and Tonbridge and Malling (down 26).

Workforce percentages out of a job ranged from a low of one per cent in Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks to highs of 3.7 per cent in Thanet and 2.8 per cent in Shepway.

Over the year to September 2005, the number of people involved in UK manufacturing fell by 129,000, while service sector jobs rose by 307,000.

The number of people in public sector jobs stood at 5.83million, up 72,000 from the same time a year ago. The employment rate nationally was 74.5million, some way short of the Government’s 80 per cent target.

Margaret Hodge, the employment minister, said she was concerned but it was not time to panic.

Jobless figures on December 8, 2005: Kent/Medway combined, 20,435 (up 488); Medway, 4,104 (up 82); Rest of Kent, 16,331 (up 406); Ashford, 984 (up 45); Canterbury, 1,501 (up 41); Dartford, 1,038 (down 13); Dover, 1,685 (up 54); Gravesham, 1,554 (up 58); Maidstone, 1,235 (up 62); Sevenoaks, 683 (up 33); Shpway, 1,634 (up 71); Swale, 1,953 (up 64); Thanet, 2,676 (up 12); Tonbridge and Malling, 725 (down 26); Tunbridge Wells, 663 (up five).