Marcus Jones welcomed today’s news that the number of people in work has risen again and now is at the highest level since 1971.

“This is great news for the 92,000 people who have started work in the last quarter – that’s 92,000 people who now have the satisfaction and dignity that employment brings to them and their families.

“There is obviously more to do and here, in Nuneaton, there are still 1,100 people currently seeking employment and I hope that the Government’s recent announcement of an additional £42.44 million to the LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) from the Growth Deal for Coventry and Warwickshire will help to create new opportunities for many of them.

“Record numbers of people in employment is great news for our local economy and for the national economy – it is the strength of Britain’s economy that generates the resources that enable Government to allocate funds to the NHS, to education and to all of the other services that we depend on.

“Today’s figures are a further vindication of our policies that seek to balance the nation’s books; to create an economic climate that encourages enterprise and innovation; and seize the huge opportunities to trade across the whole world that will follow our withdrawal from the EU.”