THE number of Wirral people claiming jobseeker's allowance has fallen for the 18th successive month, according to new figures.

The Office for National Statistics said 3,729 claimed the benefit in November - a drop of 257 from the previous month. 

Spokesman for Jobcentre Plus in Merseyside, Alan Harrison, told the Globe that the local figures are "really encouraging."

"This is not a blip it’s shows a genuine upturn in job vacancies," he said.

“Our links with the local authority and skills agencies have helped us achieve this.

"The Wirral figures show a 62% decrease on the numbers claiming at this time last year, which is very impressive.”

The number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance across Merseyside fell by more than 8% to 26,429. 

The ONS reported that nationally 30.8m people were in work, the highest since records began in 1971, and 588,000 up on a year ago.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: "These remarkable figures show that our long-term economic plan to create a better more prosperous future for Britain is working.“

Employment minister and Wirral West MP Esther McVey highlighted that 95% of new jobs in the past year were full-time.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves said: "Today's fall in overall unemployment is welcome, but after four years when prices have risen faster than wages, working people are over £1,600 a year worse off since 2010.

"There is a huge amount of lost ground to catch up. And while falling global oil prices have led to the rate of inflation going down, wages remain sluggish.”