Reason to be nervously cheerful

The June jobless figures for the Buckinghamshire area, announced today, make encouraging reading.

In Chesham and Amersham, for instance, the number of people claiming unemployment benefit has dropped by a staggering 22 per cent compared to the same month last year. High Wycombe has the highest unemployment rate, but at 3.1 per cent of the working population - less than half the national average of 7.8 per cent - there's evidence that, as far as jobs are concerned, the area is leading the way out of the bad times of the past year.

Everyone now waits to see if the trend will continue. Some union reps reckon that up to 400 net jobs will go in the region following the Government's announcement this week to abolish regional health authorities and primary care trusts and hand over responsibilities to GP surgeries. And local authorities in Bucks alone estimate around 500 jobs will disappear in the coming months.

Meanwhile, businesses say that more people are settling for part time jobs rather than have no job at all.

But for now, a reason to be cheerful, albeit somewhat nervously.