New figures show that the whole of the north and north-east has fewer long-term unemployed than just one neighbourhood in Birmingham.
The 12 most northerly constituencies in Britain – including the cities of Aberdeen and Inverness – are home to a total of 2,225 people who have been claiming the jobseeker’s allowance for over a year.
The statistic represents just 70% of the 3,150 long-term unemployed in the Ladywood area of Birmingham.
For all categories – short, medium and long-term – there was a total of 10,527 claimants in the dozen seats in the north and north-east in February.
This compared to 7,929 in Ladywood, which had the UK’s highest rate.
Northern Scotland was home to the three constituencies with the fewest claimants, according to research by the House of Commons Library using the latest official data.
Across the entire country, the lowest level was in Orkney and Shetland, where there were 278 people, followed by West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine with 330, and Gordon with 407.
The two UK seats with the lowest claimant rates were oil and gas-rich Gordon and West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine areas, at 0.7%. This compares with the national rate of 7.2%, and 14.4% in Ladywood. The numbers have also dropped substantially in all of the 12 constituencies as the economy recovered in the last year.
There was a huge 42% fall in claimants in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, down by 780 since February last year to 1,087.
Similarly, there was a 22% drop in Aberdeen North, 24% in Aberdeen South, 28% in Banff and Buchan, 25% in Moray, 31% in Orkney and Shetland, 30% in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine and 28% in Gordon.
Argyll and Bute had the highest number of claimants in the region, with 1,546, followed by Aberdeen North with 1,462, then Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross with 1,251, Moray with 1,099, and Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey on 1,087.
Sir Malcolm Bruce, Liberal Democrat MP for Gordon, said: “My constituency has 0.7% unemployment – that’s actually a skills shortage.
“The problem in the area is not the shortage of jobs, it’s the shortage of skills.
“If you look at the whole of the UK over the last three years or so, I think the remarkable thing is the fall in unemployment and rise in employment.
“It doesn’t mean we’ve solved the problem, but an awful lot of things have come together,” added the MP.