The number of people out of work and claiming benefit has fallen for the second month in a row.

Latest figures for April produced by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), show there were 7,686 people claiming Job Seekers’ Allowance (JSA), a fall of 161 on the perevious month.

There are now 1,063 fewer people signing on the dole than at the same time last year.

Nationally, the number of claimants increased by 12,400 last month to 1.47 million, the largest increase in 16 months.

The number of women claiming JSA increased by 9,300 to 474,400, the highest level since October 1996, while the number of male claimants increased by 3,100 to 994,200.

The surge in the female claimant count came as more single mothers switched from income support to JSA, due to changes to benefit rules introduced in 2008, the ONS said.

Elsewhere, unemployment including those not on JSA fell by 36,000 in the quarter to March to 2.455 million, a rate of 7.7 per cent, down by 0.1 per cent on the quarter.