ILKLEY'S jobless total has fallen.

Latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that last month there were 1,060 claimants in the Keighley Parliamentary constituency, which includes Ilkley.

The total was down by 30, or 2.8 per cent, from April.

The data includes both people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance and Universal Credit benefits principally for unemployment reasons.

Figures fell across all of the district's five Parliamentary constituencies, month-on-month.

The district-wide total for May reached a new three-month low, of 9,130.

And the figure was 16 per cent down on the 10,865 of two years ago.

Heather Barraclough, of Jobcentre Plus, said there were a number of reasons for the positive changes in Bradford district.

These included redundancies being at a low level regionally.

In Yorkshire and the Humber, the claimant count last month was 75,746, a rise of 950 on April and an increase of 908 on the previous year.