UNEMPLOYMENT figures have risen for the Maldon district.

In the latest labour market statistics released this week, it was revealed the number of people seeking work stood at 390, which is increase of 35 since this time last month.

Of these people, there are 80 aged between 18 and 24 seeking working, an increase of ten since this time in January.

Stuart Brown, of JobCentre Plus, stated the reasoning behind the increase was due to the continued roll out of universal credit.

He said: “Now that we are a completely universial credit region, there will be many more claiming for that than the previous system, meaning more are categorised as seeking work.

“There is also the fact that the population of Essex has increased in the past few years.

“The JobCentre continues to work to get as many people employed as possible, we’re holding a jobs fair soon up in Braintree, and we’re still confident in these figures going down and being maintained.”