Unemployment (Shropshire)

Mark Pritchard
20. To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on levels of unemployment in Shropshire between June 2005 and June 2006.

John Healey
The number of people unemployed and claiming benefit in Shropshire in May 2006 is 2,599. This is 603 higher than the previous year, but it is nearly 1,700 lower than it was in 1997, and nearly 10,000 lower than it was in 1986 under the last Government.