THE number of people claiming job seeker's allowance has increased by ten in the last month.

This month, there are 1,410 people claiming the benefit compared to 1,400 in May.

April saw 1,380 people signing on.

Dave Cope, Essex operations manager at the Department for Work and Pensions, put the increase down to more people moving into the area.

He said: "We are not overly worried about that kind of increase.

"It's a trend we are seeing in Colchester, which we believe is down to population growth.

"We know the economy and the labour market is good in Colchester.

"It is a growing town and people will be travelling to it looking for work.

"An increase such as this is definitely not something we're worried about."