Another 42 people joined the dole queue in Kent last month.

There were 16,639 people claiming unemployment benefits in the county in October, according to the Office for National Statistics.

However, there were 27,000 less people out of work between July and September across the South East, a 13.1% fall on the previous quarter to 180,000.

The county was a mixed bag again, with a significant rise in people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in Shepway cancelling out falls in most areas.

“It is a mixed bag across the county but overall, the claimant count for all areas has had a 20% reduction since this time last year..." - Glenn Stoneman, Maidstone Jobcentre

The district saw its claimant count rise by 68 to 1,177, the largest rise this month.

The rest of the increases were relatively modest with many districts flatlining.

“It is a mixed bag across the county but overall, the claimant count for all areas has had a 20% reduction since this time last year,” said Glenn Stoneman, operations manager at Maidstone Jobcentre.

“That is 35% down for 16 to 24 year old and we are not seeing signs that it will plateau any time soon.

“We have had a lot of development in Maidstone which has brought new jobs and I can’t see that drying up.”

Canterbury was up 33 to 992 and Tunbridge Wells, the area’s with the lowest number of people on unemployment benefits, increasing 24 to 465.

Dover and Sevenoaks were up 12 to 1,098 and 526 respectively.

Gravesham had the largest decline in people on the dole, falling 40 to 1,238, with Maidstone down 35 to 1,133 and Medway, the area with the highest number of claimants, down 17 to 3,671.

The county’s other districts were largely unchanged, with Swale down seven to 1,660, Ashford up three to 950 and Thanet and Tonbridge and Malling down one to 2,240 and 718 respectively.

Nationally, the number of people out of work fell by 103,000 over the same period to 1.8 million.

The UK unemployment rate for the three months to September was joint lowest in the South East at 3.9%, below the national rate of 5.3%, which is down from 6% for a year earlier and the lowest since 2008.