Staff at eight county branches of troubled holiday firm Thomas Cook last night breathed a sigh of relief after learning their jobs were not going to be axed.

The company said it will close 178 UK stores over the next two years as it battles to turn around its ailing business, with 115 of those to be shut following staff consultations by March.

But about 40 staff at branches in Cowley, Witney, Abingdon, Didcot, Bicester, Wantage, Carterton and Banbury are not among those affected by the immediate closure programme.

The announcement came as the group revealed it had slumped to a £398m pre-tax loss in the year to September 30, compared with a £42m profit in the previous year, after it was hit by poor trading in the UK and the Arab Spring put tourists off travelling to Tunisia and Egypt.

The news came as it emerged the number of people out of work and claiming jobseeker’s allowance in Oxfordshire fell by 113 in November to 7,612 or 1.8 per cent of the working age population, the lowest since June.

The figure is a 0.1 per cent increase on the same month last year.

Only South Oxfordshire saw a year on year drop in claimant count to 1,165, a fall of 0.1 per cent.

Oxford still has the highest number of claimants at 2,738 or 3.3 per cent.