MORE than 300 people joined the county’s jobless queue in September.

The latest claimant count showed numbers rising by 330 across Kent and Medway to 19,261. The latest rise follows a 405 increase in August.

The September totals went up by 277 to 15,497 in Kent - 1.9 per cent of the workforce - and by 53 to 3,794 - 2.4 per cent - in Medway.

Only three districts - Swale, Tonbridge and Malling and Tunbridge Wells - saw a drop in the claimant count. Nationally, it went up 8,200 to 875,500.

The Government’s preferred quarterly measure of unemployment showed a fall of 7,000 from 1.42 million in the three months to August but up 21,000 from a year earlier.

The number of people out of work for more than a year was up 2,000 to 300,000.

Average earnings increased by four per cent, unchanged from the previous month. Pay rates rose more steeply in the public sector than in private enterprise.

The number of manufacturing jobs has fallen by 99,000 since August 2004.

Jobless figures on September 8:

Kent and Medway, 19,291 (up 330)
Medway, 3,794 (up 53)
Rest of Kent, 15,497 (up 277)
Ashford, 927 (up 69)
Canterbury, 1,410 (up 44)
Dartford, 1,056 (up 16)
Dover, 1,527 (up 73)
Gravesham, 1,490 (up 32)
Maidstone, 1,181 (up 29)
Sevenoaks, 693 (up two)
Shepway, 1,558 (up 54)
Swale, 1,706 (down 20)
Thanet, 2,614 (up two)
Tonbridge and Malling, 709 (down 10)
Tunbridge Wells, 626 (down 14)