FIGURES show the number of people claiming Job Seekers Allowance in Gwent has more than doubled in three years to 19,222 people.

Blaenau Gwent's numbers have skyrocketed, singling out the borough as suffering with the highest unemployment in Wales.

According to the latest UK-wide labour force survey, there are 3,419 people claiming Job Seekers' Allowance (JSA) in the borough, 8.2 percent of the eligible workforce of 41,700.

Caerphilly borough ranked third highest in Wales, with 6,230, (5.9 percent) of people claiming JSA, followed by Newport with 4,991, also 5.9 percent.

Torfaen has 2,898, or 5.3 percent, of people looking for work and Monmouthshire has 1,684 people signing-on or 3.3 percent.

The Wales average is 4.6 percent.

All these figures are up on February 2009 and since December 2007, the number of people claiming benefits has almost tripled in some areas.

There are now 19,222 people claiming JSA across the five council areas in Gwent, compared to just 8,657 in December 2007.

Director of the South Wales Chamber of Commerce, Graham Morgan said the past two years have seen companies tightening their belts where possible, leading not only to job cuts, but freezes on employment as well.

This coupled with school, college and university leavers coming out into a market where jobs are hard to come by can add to unemployment figures.

Mr Morgan added: "People who went to university three years ago to do a job such as an accountant or lawyer when job prospects were very good have come out to find there's not the same demand."

In a bid to tackle unemployment in Blaenau Gwent, the council set up Connect 2 Business a year ago.

The scheme involves working with businesses in the area to find out any problems or issues they had and what could be done to help save jobs in conjunction with ongoing employment and training schemes with the Assembly.

The council's training centre helped 1,639 people get vocational qualifications in nine months, with major projects such as The Works adding a boost to job prospects in the area.

Mr Morgan said signs are pointing to better prospects with moves such as basing more public sector and civil service jobs outside London and companies which use call centres continuing to expand.

Average council tax changes

Authority Feb 10 Feb 09 Dec 07 Blaenau Gwent 3,419 3,338 1,780 Caerphilly 6,230 5,805 2,831 Monmouthshire 1,684 1,466 591 Newport 4,991 4,373 2,145 Torfaen 2,898 2,714 1,310

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Future bleak in job market

THE unemployment statistics we are revealing today make grim reading and not just for the worst hit region of Blaenau Gwent.

In the past three years the number of people claiming Job Seeker's Allowances in all five local county borough council areas has more than doubled to 19,222.

If anyone doubted that the recession we have just experienced was one of the deepest in the UK's history then surely these figures provide the proof.

They paint a worrying picture of a high level of economic inactivity in this area.

Blaenau Gwent is faring the worst, not just locally but in Wales as a whole, with the recession leading to significant levels of unemployment in this one area where 8.2 per cent of the population is claiming Job Seeker's Allowance.

Worryingly, significant numbers among the unemployed are young people who have just completed their education whether at school, college or university, to find there are no jobs available.

Schemes which are trying to re-train unemployed people or to encourage companies to take on school or college leavers are of course worthwhile but our fear is that these are just tinkering around the edges of what is a significant problem.

And with many companies unlikely to relax recruitment freezes any time soon unfortunately the local picture is unlikely to improve in forthcoming months.