LATEST statistics show the unemployment rate in Derwentside has fallen to under eight per cent compared to the all time high of 28 per cent in the area 20 years ago.
New Derwentside District Council figures also show that the unemployment rate is dropping at a time when the population is increasing. The figures reveal that 88,200 people are now living in the area compared to a low of under 85,000 in 1990.
Before the closure of Consett Steelworks and many of the area's coal mines in the early Eighties, the population of the district was more than 105,000.
Council leader Alex Watson said: "We arrested the decline in population and the improved unemployment figures show that the situation is improving here."
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