Unemployment & Economic Exclusion

Unemployment in West Lothian stands at 2.5% (% is a proportion of resident working age people) in October 2008. Latest claimant count figures for October 2008 show an increase of 29 on the previous month. Also, the net annual increase in West Lothian's claimant count in October 2008 was 26.4% on the previous year.

West Lothian's unemployment rate of 2.5%, however, is lower than both the Scottish (2.6%) and UK (2.6%) rates.

N.B. Unemployment rates are represented by claimant count figures (those people claiming Jobseekers Allowance). The number of working age who are jobless and on benefit is about 17,000 (see Table 3) and the true level of unemployment varies between 9,000 and 12,000. Figure 1 compares the rate of decline in the real level of unemployment in the last five years for West Lothian, Scotland and Great Britain (2003 is the baseline year) and shows a trend in falling level for each area.