THE latest unemployment figures for Swindon have been heralded as a tribute to the town's resilience.

Chamber of Trade and Commerce policy advisor Nigel Carter said the figures, which show a net unemployment increase of 200 on this time last year, was remarkable given the upheaval witnessed recently.

This year alone Motorola has shed 1,300 jobs, IT technology firm Lucent made 700 redundant and 300 were made unemployed by EMI.

Further job losses at New Zealand Dairies in Wootton Bassett threatened to create a dent in Swindon's otherwise respectable unemployment rate.

The unemployment rate in Swindon currently stands at 1.8 per cent compared to a 2.1 per cent in the South West and a figure of 4.2 per cent nationally.

The number of people signed on and claiming Job Seekers' Allowance at Swindon JobCentre in Wessex Court stood at 2,598 in April an increase of just seven on March.

Mr Carter said: "We have witnessed only a modest increase on this time last year and that is remarkable given the amount of activity in the town recently.

"The net increase of only 200 is very gratifying and clearly shows considerable resilience in Swindon the key is that the figures have remained consistent."

JobCentre manager Tim Parkinson also said the figures made pleasing reading.

"The figures make extremely good reading if you bear in mind there were a lot of redundancies in the town at the beginning of the year," he said.

"That said, Honda and Asda Walmart are both still actively recruiting and it is expected that more retail companies will open up on the Swindon North Shop-ping Park in Abbey Meads very soon, which will inevitably create more jobs.

"These figures are favourable and recently we have witnessed a downward trend in the number of high-tech companies in the town laying people off.

"We really have been able to hold our own in terms of the unemployment rate here in Swindon and that is without doubt a very pleasing situation."