The number of jobseekers in Kent fell by 463 in July - in line with the UK's biggest quarterly fall for three years.

In total 31,599 were out of work in the county compared to 32,062 in June.

It is the sixth month in a row the figures have shown people leaving the dole queue.

Gravesham saw the largest fall with 92 less people looking for jobs, bringing its total to 2,278.

Medway's unemployment was the next largest fall on 91 with 6,434 on the jobless register in all.

The only districts to see a modest rise were Tonbridge and Malling, up 20 to 1,400, Thanet up four to 3,915 and Dartford up two to 1,903.

The whole of Kent excluding Medway saw a drop in jobseekers of 372 to 25,165.

In June, unemployment across the county fell by more than a thousand - bucking the national trend.

But this month the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the UK unemployment level fell to 2.46 million.

The drop came after a 184,000 increase in the number of employed to 29 million, marking the largest quarterly hike since the three months to May 1989.

The figures also show the sixth successive fall in the claimant count for those on Jobseeker's Allowance, down 3,800 to 1.46 million.

The number of male claimants fell by 7,100 to reach 1.04 million, but the number of female claimants increased by 3,300 to reach 420,300.

The number of people claiming for up to six months increased by 7,200 on the month to reach 903,700.

This is the first monthly increase in this series since April 2009.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said: "These figures are a small step in the right direction, though we absolutely do not underestimate the scale of the economic challenge we face.

"The fact that there are still five million people on out of work benefits underlines the scale of Britain's welfare challenge and shows that we are right to radically overhaul our welfare system.

"Our reforms will mean that people are always financially better off in work; people will no longer be trapped in a life on benefits.

"From early next year we will start full scale re-testing of Incapacity Benefit claimants and our Work Programme will come into force to ensure that long term unemployed people and others who need it have tailored support to move them into sustained work."

• Looking at unemployment across the county Ashford was down eight to 1734, Canterbury down 44 to 2073, Dartford up two to 1903, Dover down 89 to 2045, Gravesham down 92 to 2278, Maidstone down 43 to 2181, Medway down 91 to 6434, Sevenoaks down 27 to 1197, Shepway down 16 to 2397, Swale down 63 to 2891, Thanet up four to 3915 Tonbridge and Malling up 20 to 1400 and Tunbridge Wells down 16 to 1151.