by business editor Trevor Sturgess

East Kent bore the brunt of a 189 rise in unemployment across the county last month.

The number of people out of work and claiming benefit in Kent and Medway stood at 35,217 on November 12.

Medway's jobless total went up by 43 to 7,307 (4.6 per cent). Across the rest of Kent, it increased by 146 to 27,910 (3.3 per cent).

Meanwhile, UK unemployment has risen to 2.49 million, but the Government will be pleased that it stayed just below the widely anticipated 2.5 million mark.

Most of the increase came from the east of the county, with an extra 125 people joining the dole queue in Dover, 114 in Thanet and 93 in Shepway. Canterbury’s total edged up by 28.

Highlighting an east-west divide, the numbers fell dramatically in Dartford (down 91), Gravesham (down 45), Maidstone (down 30) Tonbridge and Malling (down 40) and Tunbridge Wells (down 26).

In the east, only Ashford bucked the downward trend with a fall of 51. And in the west, Sevenoaks was the exception, with unemployment rising by 44.

Nationally, UK unemployment went up by 21,000 to 2.49 million, just below the anticipated 2.5 million mark. But it was still the highest figure since March 1995 and has risen by 608,000 in a year.

However, the Government will take heart from the fact that it was the smallest quarterly increase since March-May 2008. The proportion of the workforce out of work was 7.9 per cent.

But ministers will be less pleased that youth unemployment reached a record high, with the number of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work up 6,000 to 952,000 in the three months to October, the highest figure since records began in 1992.

Jobless figures for the county on November 12:

Kent and Medway combined, 35,217 (up 189); Medway, 7,307 (up 43: 4.6 per cent of the workforce); Rest of Kent, 27,910 (up 146: 3.3 per cent); Ashford, 1,926 (down 51: 2.9 per cent); Canterbury, 2,367 (up 28: 2.6 per cent); Dartford, 2,020 (down 91: 3.5 per cent); Dover, 2,373 (up 125: 3.9 per cent); Gravesham, 2,542 (down 45: 4.3 per cent); Maidstone, 2,467 (down 30: 2.8 per cent); Sevenoaks, 1,449 (up 44: 2.1 per cent); Shepway, 2,532 (up 93: 4.4 per cent); Swale, 3,180 (up 25: 4.0 per cent); Thanet, 4,196 (up 114: 5.8 per cent); Tonbridge and Malling, 1,595 (down 40: 2.3 per cent); Tunbridge Wells, 1,263 (down 26: 2.0 per cent).