UNEMPLOYMENT has dropped in Oxfordshire for the third year running.

According to new statistics released today by the Office for National Statistics, just 11,800 people - or 3.3 per cent of the working population - were unemployed between April 2014 and March 2015.

Overall 77.4 per cent of the county's population are now employed.

Rates across Oxfordshire have dropped steadily since 2012-13, when 6.5 per cent of the county, or 24,000 people, were unemployed.

In Oxford the unemployment figure is slightly higher at 3.7 per cent, but this too has dropped year-on-year since 2012-13, when the total percentage was 6.3.