Rye has highestunemployment

Sarah Owen said: “Statistics show that in Hastings and Rye long term unemployment has increased 13% from last year, and long-term youth unemployment is up 23%.

“Hastings and Rye now has the highest number of unemployed people in the South East and has double the number of unemployed people compared to neighbouring areas of Eastbourne, Brighton and Hove.

“We’ve seen the success that local schemes like Hastings Borough Council’s apprenticeship programme can have, but we urgently need action to get more local people into work.

This is why we are calling for a compulsory jobs guarantee, funded by a tax on bankers’ bonuses, which will get any adult out of work for more than two years, or young person out of work for a year, into a paid job – one they would be required to take.”

Sarah called for urgent measures to be taken.

“Areas like Rye can’t wait any longer for action to be taken.

“Ministers must get off their hands and start helping now before they condemn a whole generation to joblessness.

Figures for March this year show the number of claimants of Job Seekers Allowance in the Rye and Hastings area being 1.100 compared to 345 claimants in the Bexhill and Battle constituency.

The figures are even higher than areas such as Folkestone, Gillingham, Crawley and Chatham.