8:10am Friday 20th March 2009
By Kerry Grove
The number of people signing on the dole in Kingston has hit almost 2,000, the highest level for 11 years.
The unemployment figures, released this week, showed an extra 326 people signed on to jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) in February alone, bringing the total to 1,997.
Kingston is still well below average for unemployment, with 1.9 per cent of adults signing on to JSA, compared with 3.8 per cent in London and the UK.
Graham McNally, Kingston town centre manager, said: “It’s a tragedy for each family involved, in the overall state of the nation we are very fortunate to be in Kingston, which is running at a much lower figure than the rest.”
The unemployment figures come just months after many shops in Kingston town centre shut down, including Barratts shoe shop, OSC clothing and The Pier homewares.
But a recent study by Kingston Town Centre Management has found that 2 per cent of the shops were standing empty, well below the national average.
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