Macclesfield is the only part of England with more women claiming benefits than last year

Macclesfield is the the only constituency in England where there are more women claiming Job Seekers Allowance than there were last year.

There are 10 more women claiming JSA in Macclesfield than last year. While this number is small, it is the only constituency in England where this figure has risen on last year. The overall number of women claiming JSA in Macclesfield is 378, which is just 2.1% of the female population, which matches the UK average for women.

In every other constituency in England the numbers of women claiming benefits is down on last year, with overall figures for women claiming JSA in the UK falling by 0.5% to 422,390, with the overall figure for men and women falling even faster by 0.8% to 1.2 million.

Almost twice as many men claim JSA than women in the UK, despite making up 47% of the UK workforce according to Opportunity Now, an initiative by the charity Business in the Community.

This suggests either that women are less likely to claim JSA when they are out of work or that unemployment is a far more serious issue for men in the UK than it is for women - there are more than twice as many men claiming JSA in Macclesfield, despite there being 60 less men claiming than last year.

The figures were released by the Office for National Statistics in January and are based on Job Centre figures from December 2013.

MP for Macclesfield David Rutley would not return calls or answer emails on this issue. But, in March 2013 he spoke to the Macclesfield express about the news that 550 jobs were to be cut at the pharmaceutical company Astrazecea, which has a site in Alderly Park, just outside Macclesfield. "Sadly, this will create uncertainty for employees at Alderley Park, many of whom live in the Macclesfield constituency," he said.

Have job cuts in the Macclesfield area affected you? Let me know in the comments below.

Explore the data 

Areas marked in green had less than 2% of the population claiming, areas marked in amber had less than 4% and areas marked in red were anything above 4%. Click on the constituencies to explore.