The number of people claiming unemployment benefit in Oxfordshire has risen again.
Latest figures for March show 9,174 people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, a rise of 730 or 8.6 per cent on the previous month.
The figure is the highest since October 1996 — more than six months before Labour came to power.
Nationally, the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance increased for the 13th month in a row in March, up by 73,700 to 1.46 million.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "These are another set of grim figures. There are no green shoots here, and there will be no real recovery until unemployment starts coming down.”
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