Unemployment in the Wycombe district has dropped by eight per cent in the last year, according to figures from the High Wycombe Jobcentre Plus.

The figure went down from 1,215 to 1,125, with around 90 more people getting into employment in the area.

Jan White, senior partnership manager for Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Milton Keynes at the Job Centre, told the BFP the figures were impacted by the number of high profile redundancies across the county, including British Home Stores, which closed its High Wycombe store last month.

Ms White praised retail giant TK Maxx, who recently opened a store in High Wycombe’s Eden Shopping Centre, saying the firm took on redundant members of staff from BHS, reducing the potential number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance.

She told the BFP unemployment has continued to decrease across the county, dropping four per cent in the last year, and the Leave vote in the EU Referendum in June has not yet had an impact on employment figures so far.

She said: “Brexit does not seem to have had any impact yet, although only time will tell.”

The latest Labour Market Statistics (LMS) released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the employment rate for the UK hit a “record” high of 74.5 per cent and unemployment is at its lowest since 2005 at 4.9 per cent.

In Wycombe, the percentage of people in employment went up from 75.5 per cent in March 2015 to 78.8 per cent in March 2016, after dropping from 77.9 per cent in March 2014.

Ms White added: “It looks like everything is going in the right direction at the moment. It’s looking pretty good so far.”