Jobless figures went into an erratic spin across south Essex yesterday with some areas seeing an increase and other areas seeing a strong fall in unemployment.

In Southend, the number of people claiming benefits last month went down by 163 to 4,759 compared to January's 4,922 claimants.

Thurrock saw the number on the dole queue go up by 107 to 2,907 from 2,800 for the same two months. In Basildon, there was a slight growth with 3,044 unemployed people in February compared to 3,034 in January.

The jobless levels dropped in Castle Point with the figures falling to 1,238 for last month compared to 1,264 in January. Rochford saw a tiny increase in its unemployment rates going up by just three to 980 for February compared to 977 in January.

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