DERBY'S jobs market still seems to be suffering something of a hangover from Christmas.
Before he delivered his Budget speech, Chancellor George Osborne was buoyed by the latest UK unemployment figures.
They showed that unemployment dropped by 63,000 to 2.33 million in three months to January, with the jobless rate at 7.2%.
The Office for National Statistics also said the number of people in employment rose to 30.19 million.
And the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance fell by 34,600 in February to 1.17 million.
But locally, the news was not so good.
Figures for Derby showed that the city's dole queue grew for the second consecutive month – rising in February from 5,408 to 5,598 – a difference of 190 or 3.5%.
In the rest of the county, the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance remained static last month, rising by just 13 to 10,982.
The figures come after the number of people looking for work in Derby and Derbyshire went up in January.
However, business leaders expected the dole queue to grow post-Christmas as a number of the temporary festive contracts came to an end. Despite the rise in claimants in February, Derby and Derbyshire remain in a better position than 12 months ago.
During the same month last year, the number of people looking for work in Derby was 7,891 and in Derbyshire it was 15,470.
Chris Hobson, head of information and representation at the Chamber of Commerce for Derbyshire, said: "The number of claimants has increased in both the city and county but the remnants of any remaining seasonal contracts coming to an end could account for this.
"The important thing to remember is that the underlying year-on-year trend is still positive and shows the longer-term progression of the economy over the past 12 months was in the right direction.
"The figures also tally with an early analysis of the findings of our latest Quarterly Economic Survey, which show that in the first quarter of this year, 31% of firms increased the size of their workforce and only 10% reduced it.
"Looking ahead to the next three months, a third of firms expect to recruit more staff."
