The gap between unemployment in Coventry and Warwickshire and the rest of the West Midlands has widened further.

The jobless figure in Warwickshire, at an historic low of 2.8 per cent, fell by only 12. But with 221 fewer claiming benefits in Coventry, the city's jobless rate fell from 5.3 to 5.1 per cent.

Analysts at The Chamber said this brought the combined figure for Coventry and Warwickshire down to 3.6 per cent-nine points lower than the UK average of 4.5 per cent and 12 points below the West Midlands average of 4.8 per cent.

"There is evidence of employers hanging on to people in anticipation of the UK upturn which most experts are forecasting for later this year,"

said a spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce, Training and Enterprise.

"There is no doubt that manufacturing is taking a hit. With a consistently healthy job situation in Coventry and Warwickshire there is every indication that new service jobs are being created.

"These are more than compensating for lost manufacturing jobs and clearly this is why our area is leading the West Midlands."

The detailed figures actually showed a wide variety attributed by The Chamber's analysts largely to the effects of Easter disrupting signing on.

Stratford and Coventry saw the largest reductions in unemployment while North Warwickshire and Rugby saw increases.

In Rugby this was balanced by an increase in new vacancies reported during the month, but North Warwickshire took a double hit, with new vacancies down from 106 the previous month to only 64.

"There were nearly 500 fewer vacancies reported across Coventry and Warwickshire," The Chamber spokesman said, "but that has to be set against very high figures the previous two months."

The Chamber's quarterly report on the long term unemployed reveals that the 20 to 24 age group benefited from the largest decrease in the proportion of those out of work for six months, or longer.

The 40 to 44 and 50-plus age groups also gained more jobs-at the expense of the 18 to 19-year-olds.

The long term unemployed in Coventry and Warwickshire now represent 41.5 per cent of the total, a marginal increase, whereas the all-UK figure went up by more than 14,000 to 42.7 per cent of the total.

The proportion has decreased steadily in Coventry and Warwickshire from 45.9 per cent a year ago-which was then higher than the UK proportion.

Figures by local council area: