Town hit by rising unemployment

Unemployment in a north Worcestershire town has more than doubled in the past year, a study shows.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in Redditch rose from 1,106 in February 2008 to 2,713 in February this year.

The figures published by the Work Foundation showed the rise of 145% was one of the highest in the UK.

Birmingham suffered the heaviest job losses with 12,383 claiming unemployment benefits in the past year.

Christopher Harvey, from Hereford and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce, said the town had been hit by a decline in manufacturing.

"One of the problems is a high proportion of the economy in that district is manufacturing businesses which have been hit by the recession," he said.

"Also a number of businesses in Redditch supply into other businesses and this is a problem, but if you look at Birmingham, a lot of of their businesses have had the same problem too."