370 More Local Jobless

6.49.49pm GMT Thu 27th Mar 2003

The latest unemployment figures show that between February 2002 and February 2003, there were an additional 370 unemployed in the borough.

Although the total number of unemployed is low (1191 in Twickenham; 1319 in Richmond) the level is growing rapidly (14% in Twickenham; 20% in Richmond over the year) unlike the rest of Britain (though there has been a big jump in unemployment in Kingston (20%) Feltham (15%) and Brentford

(17%).

MP Vincent Cable said: "what's happening is localised recession amongst professional people. There have been big redundancies in the City and in the IT industry. "

"The problem is a lot worse than the official figures imply since many people with this background do not claim benefit and they "

"are not eligible, anyway, for several months after redundancy. I fear we are at the beginning of what could be a serious downturn".