THE number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in the county has dropped by almost a third since last year.

According to figures released by the Office of National Statistics, 2,360 people were claiming across Oxfordshire on June 11 this year, down from 3,537 at the same in 2014.

In Oxford City there were fewer than 1,000 people claiming JSA, down from 1,182 last year to 829.

Anne-Marie Deane, manager of the Station Lane Jobcentre Plus in Witney, said: “It’s really nice news. From our point of view everything is going on the right track.

“We have seen an increase in former jobseekers returning to work. I am not surprised. In Oxfordshire and the South East, there’s a buoyant labour market and a lot of flexibility with employers.

“Locally, we have done quite a lot with Westgate and Banbury Gateway and we have worked a lot with academies.”

The majority of claimants – 1,580 overall – had signed on for six months or fewer. In the year, under one per cent of the population of Oxfordshire had been on the dole.

This followed a sharp drop in the figures for the period from October 2013 to October 2014, when the number of people claiming JSA fell from 5,129 to 2,955.

The South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse districts were both among the 10 council areas in the UK with the lowest proportion of claimants, at 0.3 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively.

The secretary of the Federation of Small Businesses for Thames Valley, Margaret Coles, said she had seen an increase in the number of firms hiring new faces.

She said: “I do book-keeping for builders, landscape gardeners and similar trades and they have been taking on more people this year.

“The economy is recovering. There’s more business out there and they try to hire locally. My only concern is if we get to a point where there’s a shortage of people to recruit.”

The number of young JSA claimants, aged 18 to 24, stands at just 380 across the county, which is a decrease of 244.

Sally Dicketts, chief executive of Activate Learning, which runs City of Oxford College and Banbury and Bicester College, said: “I’m not entirely surprised, given young people aged 16 to 18 now have to stay in full-time education.

“We are looking at providing courses that are directly linked to employment. We have worked with employers on live projects, and set up ‘learning companies’, so if you do hairdressing, we have hairdressers and beauticians they can work with. They work to a higher level and have their own income.

“There are more jobs in Oxfordshire. It’s a thriving place and we are creating employment.”