THE number of people out of work in Stroud continues to fall, new figures have shown.

In December 2016 just under 500 people in the district were unemployed.

This figure is down by four per cent on the same time the previous year, continuing a positive downward trend in the Five Valleys.

However, the number of young people aged 18-24 out of work in December did rise slightly to 140, an increase of four per cent on the previous year.

Data from the Office for National Statistics also shows that the number of working age people out of a job has dropped by 64 per cent in the last seven years.

Back in December 2010, after the shockwaves of the global economic crash, that number had risen to 1,357 people in Stroud. Since then this number has fallen by 867.

Councillor Steve Lydon, leader of Stroud District Council, welcomed the decrease, but said it didn’t give a full picture of employment in the Five Valleys.

“It’s obviously good to see the downward trend in unemployment in the district continue and we’ll be unveiling new plans and initiatives over the next few months which will further help to boost the local economy,” he said.

The Labour councillor added: “However, the fall in unemployment masks the rise in people having to do more than one job, often on short term or zero hours contracts to try to make ends meet."

Neil Carmichael, Conservative MP for Stroud, said: “I’m delighted to see the continued downward trend in unemployment locally.

"I’m working hard to create more opportunities and apprenticeships for young people through the forthcoming Stroud Festival of Manufacturing and Engineering to give them the skills they need for the modern workplace.”

At the end of last year, Stroud was only one of two local authorities in the county which recorded a drop in unemployment on that same time in 2015.

Other areas in Gloucestershire, including Gloucester, Cheltenham and the Cotswolds, saw employment rise in December by an average of five per cent on the same month the previous year.

In Gloucestershire as a whole, there were a total of 3970 people out of work in December 2016, up by three per cent on last year.

Some 900 of these were young people – an increase of 6.5 per cent on the same time in 2015.

ONS data also shows that between October 2015 and September 2016 there were 321,900 people in employment in Gloucestershire – 82 per cent of the population.

Of these people in work, 48,900 of them were self-employed - 11.5 per cent of the population.

The total unemployment figure in the county stood at 15,000, or 4.5 per cent.