House welcomes figures

Jobless falls for second month in a row

The number of people unemployed in Kent fell by 668 to 36,934 last month with every district across the county seeing falls in their jobless figure.

Figures show this is the second consecutive month this has happened.

Roger House, Federation of Small Businesses chairman for Kent and Medway, said: “The fall in Kent unemployment by 668 is good news. But we must not get complacent. Our spring FSB Kent Small Business Barometer shows that one in five small firms has cut jobs since last year.

“They do want to grow and take on more employees but are being held back by higher operating costs, a lack of credit from the banks and a squeeze on spending.

“Our FSB national ‘Voice of Small Business’ Index shows four-in-10 small firms are having their applications for finance turned down and we know that many small firms have missed growth opportunities because they can’t access the money they need.

“There needs to be alternative sources of finance that small firms can tap into if the nation wants to see unemployment fall further.”

The number of UK self-employed was up by 84,000 to 4.7 million according to the same set of statistics.

House said: “It is great news that more people are taking the leap and going it alone as the record high in self-employment shows. With many people struggling to find work or a full-time job, we should be doing all we can to help those with entrepreneurial spirit to set up in business and the FSB Real-Life Entrepreneur campaign seeks to help people at every stage of their business life cycle.”

“The Government’s New Enterprise Allowance scheme is an excellent idea but needs to be extended if we want to see more budding entrepreneurs turn their ideas and enthusiasm into action.”