According to Birmingham Live the West Midlands has one of the highest proportion of unemployment benefit claimants in the country.
Data published by the Office for National Statistics shows that there were 70,925 people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance or on Universal Credit and required to look for work in metropolitan county.
An extra 5,975 people were claiming unemployment benefit in the district compared a year earlier.
Men were much more likely to be unemployed than women - some 4.8 per cent of men were claiming compared to three per cent of women.