Standing view · labour_market · Chichester
improving, held with established confidence, formed on 5 October 2026 from movements in 2026-08.
Chichester's labour market has been getting stronger, though it took until the summer. The claimant count was 2,380 in January 2026, 2,465 in February and 2,470 in March, each unfavourable against the usual pattern for its month, before 2,265 in June 2026 and 2,290 in July, both favourable. Claimants as a proportion of residents aged 16-64 was 3.1 in June 2026 and also favourable. Working households numbered 30,000 in 2025, recorded as favourable. Of the economically inactive in the year to March 2026, 22.6 were retired. The turn from spring to summer is what this view rests on.
A view is formed only where the evidence names a figure you can check. Each movement listed as a reason had to be large enough to matter and distinctive in at least one way — unusual against this area's own history, unusual against comparable areas, or sustained over several periods. A movement shared with peers counts for less, because it says something about the country rather than about Chichester. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Working households, households | 2025 | improving |
| Claimant count | 2026-01 | deteriorating |
| Claimant count | 2026-02 | deteriorating |
| Claimant count | 2026-03 | deteriorating |
| Claimant count | 2026-06 | improving |
| Claimants as a proportion of residents aged 16-64 | 2026-06 | improving |
| Claimant count | 2026-07 | deteriorating |
These figures carry no defensible direction of their own: a rising house price is good news to an owner and bad news to someone trying to buy, so we do not score one as an improvement. They are shown because they are part of the picture, and they did not decide the view above.
| Measure | Period | Series |
|---|---|---|
| % of economically inactive retired | 2026-03 | falling |