Dole queues shortened marginally in Kent last month but growing numbers of women began claiming.

There were 18,935 people on unemployment benefits in the county in July, a fall of 50, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics.

It is the fourth straight month the county’s claimant count has declined.

Young people were the key drivers of the decline, with 60 fewer 16 to 24-year-olds on either jobseeker’s allowance or universal credit.

There was a drastic difference in how men and women fared in Kent.

July saw far fewer male claimants, down 160 overall, while female claimants grew by 110.

It was a mixed picture geographically across Kent, with the most significant fallers being Maidstone, down 40 to 1,235, and Shepway, down 40 to 1,370.

The largest rise was in Canterbury, up 35 to 1,305.

Across the South East, unemployment fell by 10,000 to 153,000 in the three months to the end of June.

The number of people in work across the region increased by 43,000 to 4.58 million.

The area had the lowest unemployment rate in the country of 3.2% and the highest employment rate of 79.1%.

Nationally, there were 1.48 million unemployed from April to June, down 57,000.

The unemployment rate was down to 4.4%, its lowest since 1975.

However, wages are still struggling to keep pace with the cost of living.

Average weekly earnings increased by 2.1% compared with a year earlier, well behind inflation of 3.6% announced on Tuesday, according to the retail price index (RPI) published by the Office for National Statistics.