UTTLESFORD’s MP has welcomed news that unemployment in the East of England has fallen in the first quarter of 2012.

The latest unemployment figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show a continued fall in the number of unemployed people between January and March in the Saffron Walden constituency to 2.2 per cent.

The number of unemployed in the constituency is 1,076, down from 1,178 last month.

Sir Alan said: “Our constituency has an extremely low unemployment figure compared to the national average of 5.5 per cent, and even neighbouring constituencies in the East of England, where the average is 4.2 per cent. Whilst this is good news, we must strive to improve this figure both locally and nationally.”

In the East of England the number of unemployed people fell by 6,000 to 207,000 while across the country 8.2 per cent of the economically active population are out of work – a fall of 0.2 per cent since the start of the quarter. Youth unemployment also fell by 17,000 to 1.02 million or an unemployment rate of 21.9 per cent.