NEARLY 1,200 people left the dole queue in May.

A steep drop in the number of people out of work and claiming benefit saw the county's jobless total plunge by 1,199. It comes after an encouraging fall of 639 in the previous month.

In Medway, the total dipped by 270 to 3,683 (2,735 men and 948 women), with a further 929 people finding work in the rest of the county.

The percentage of the Medway workforce out of a job fell to 2.3 per cent, and in the rest of the county to 1.8 per cent.

All Kent's 12 districts had plenty to celebrate, with the jobless totals falling by big numbers.

There were three-digit falls in each of four East Kent districts - Dover, Thanet, Shepway and Swale - with Canterbury coming close with a dip of 94.

Kent and Medway accounted for a substantial chunk of the national claimant count drop of 12,000 from 862,000.

The unemployment level, a different measure that counts people out of a job and actively seeking work, fell by 9,000 to 1.43m in the three months to April 2004.

This total, comprising 839,000 men and 588,000 women, was 77,000 lower than a year ago.

The number of men in full-time employment was 13.67m, down 1,000, while the number of women rose by 4,000 to 7.25m. Part-time workers totalled 7.39m (1.61m men and 5.78m women), up 27,000.

The number of people unemployed for more than 12 months fell by 15,000 to 297,000, with the number of 18 to 24-year-olds out of work rising 2,000 to 385,000.

Worryingly for British manufacturing, the number of production jobs fell by 113,000 in the year to March, while service sector jobs rose by 318,000 and other industries went up 114,000.

The vacancy level stood at 631,000, up 48,300 on a year ago.

Average earnings rose by 4.3 per cent in the three months to April, down 0.9 percentage points from the March rate.