Dole queues across Kent shrank last month bucking the national trend.

There were 154 fewer people on unemployment benefits in August compared to the month before, bringing the county’s total to 16,516.

However, large falls in some areas were cancelled out by rises in others.

The county’s best performers were Swale, down 54 to 1,605, Dartford, down 40 to 758, Shepway, down 39 to 1,115 and Thanet, down 37 to 2,230.

Yet these successes – which are much less drastic than recent months – are set against rises in Gravesham, up 36 to 1,261, Ashford, up 20 to 928, and a plateauing in many other areas.

There were small increases of six in Tunbridge Wells to 460 and four in Maidstone to 1,156.

Meanwhile marginal declines were recorded in Medway, down 19 to 3,709, Dover, down 14 to 1,105, Canterbury, down eight to 939, Tonbridge and Malling, down seven to 706 and Sevenoaks, down five to 531.

In the South East, unemployment grew by 18,000 to 206,000 between May and July, an increase of 9.5%, although it is down marginally 0.1% compared to a year ago.

It put the region’s unemployment rate at 4.5%, below the national rate of 5.5%.

There were 4.4 million people in work across the area, down 44,000 on the previous quarter and down 27,000 on last year.

Nationally, the number of people out of work rose by 10,000 between May and July to 1.82 million.