The Guardian's data interrogator Simon Rogers has been sorting through the latest national figures for job seeker allowance claimants - a "bang up-to-date" guide to joblessness that compiles the numbers at parliamentary constituency level. Those for London make revealing, if not unsurprising reading. (Scroll down to number 328 on the list).
The highest percentage figure is a distressing 7.8 for Tottenham, followed by 7.2 for Hackney South and Shoreditch - a seat whose southern border lies at the gateway to the wealth of the City. Nine others have rates of between 6% and 7%. They are: Hackney North and Stoke Newington; the Tower Hamlets pair of Poplar and Limehouse and Bethnal Green and Bow; West Ham, Barking, Walthamstow, Edmonton, Barking, Camberwell and Peckham and Brent Central.
At the low end of the scale with rates of 3% or less, we find: Twickenham; Sutton and Cheam; Richmond Park; Putney; Orpington; Old Bexley and Sidcup; Kingston and Surbiton; Kensington; Croydon South; Chipping Barnet; Cities of London and Westminster; Chelsea and Fulham; Beckenham.
I believe there may be a pattern in there somewhere...
