Unemployment across the county has fallen by more than 900.

The number of people claiming Job Seekers Allowance dipped by 930 to 30,939 in July, according to today’s figures from the Office for National Statistics.

In Medway, the jobless total dropped 216 to 5,969 (3.4% of the workforce), whilst in the rest of the county, it fell by 714 to 24,790 (2.7%).#

Taken with the previous month’s fall of 1,556, the claimant count in Kent and Medway has dropped by nearly 2,500 in the past two months.

Nationally, the number of people out of work in the three months to June fell by 4,000 to 2.51 million, a rate of 7.8% and 49,000 lower than a year earlier.

Between June and July, the national claimant county fell by 29,200 to reach 1.44 million, the lowest since February 2009.

Meanwhile, John Lewis has received more than 1,000 applications for 125 jobs at its new At Home store in Ashford.