THE amount of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance has dropped by more than 850 people in the past year.

But despite the drop, Wyre Forest has the second highest percentage of people claiming the benefit in Worcestershire.

The new figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that in the district 866 people, 612 men and 254 women, stopped claiming the benefit between August last year and August this year.

A total of 1,206 people, two per cent of the population, 768 men and 438 women, now claim Jobseeker's.

However, even though the area has seen a steep drop, the Wyre Forest has one of the highest counts of claims in Worcestershire, with neighbouring Worcester matching with two per cent and Redditch with a slightly higher 2.1 per cent.

Mark Garnier, MP for Wyre Forest, said the figures showed an improvement from previous years.

"A year or two back, Wyre Forest had the highest claimant figures, but we have managed to reduce unemployment by 45 per cent," he said.

"We will always have some people unemployment claiming JSA (Jobseeker's Allowance) as there's always people between jobs, and we want that because it gives people the opportunity to employ others. But we always have those hard-to-help people who find it hard to get a job.

"These figures that show we are the second highest for claimant figures in Worcestershire shows that we are now in a slightly different position than we have been previously where we have got people off JSA and into jobs but now we need to offer more training and skills to improve them further."

The lowest ranking area of the county was Wychavon, which recorded a total of 1.1 per cent of the population claiming the payment.