THE latest job figures for Swindon show that the number of people claiming unemployment benefit has risen by 83, compared to April of last year.

Currently, there are 2,643 people drawing unemployment benefit in the town, representing 2.3 per cent of the population at working age.

Last month the figure was 2,560. Regionally, the latest Labour Force Survey for the South West shows that the unemployment average for the region is 3.8 per cent, compared to the national average of 5.1 per cent, up 0.4 percentage points on a year earlier.

Nationally unemployment fell by 6,000 to 1.5 million between January and March.