Unemployment still falling in the West Midlands

But the region's unemployment rate is still 7.7%, well above the UK average of 6.4%, and the rate at which the jobless total is falling has slowed down over recent months.

Nationwide unemployment was down 132,000 to 2.08 million, and Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: "Very good news on employment: 2 million new private sector jobs since 2010, and a record fall in unemployment."

At the same time the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance is on course to dip below a million for the first time in six years.

Across the West Midlands the claimant count has been brought down by 42,952 over the last year to 107,043 last month.

Across the Black Country boroughs of Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley and Sandwell, the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance was 32,061 in July, down by more than 800 on the previous month.

In Wolverhampton the claimant count was down by 184 to 9,117, or 5.7 per cent of the city's population – still more than double the average UK claimant rate of 2.4 per cent.

In Walsall the number claiming jobseeker's allowance was down by 251 to 6,769, or four per cent.

In Dudley the claimant count fell 163 to 6,964, or 3.6 per cent, while in neighbouring Wyre Forest and Kidderminster it was down by 79 to 1,216.

In Sandwell it was down by 229 to 9,211, or 4.7 per cent, while in Birmingham it fell 463 to 35,901, or 5.1 per cent.

The country claimant count across Staffordshire – not including Stoke on Trent – was down 351 to 7,279, or just 1.4 per cent.

In Cannock Chase it was down by 24 on the previous month to 1,120 in July, or 1.8 per cent of the district's working population. In Lichfield it fell 48 to 603, or one per cent, in Stafford it was down 21 to 885, or 1.1 per cent, and in South Staffordshire it was down by 33 to 1,007, or 1.5 per cent.