BURY North has recorded the lowest percentage fall in unemployment of any north west parliamentary constituency during the past seven years.

New figures released by the GMB union puts the area at the bottom of the region's 76 areas, having seen the number of jobless drop by 38.1 per cent between May 1997 - when Labour came to power - and November 2004. Macclesfield tops the north west league by recording a significant decrease of 69.9 per cent in unemployment over the same period.

And Bury South emerges in 49th position in the same table with a decrease totalling 51.4 per cent.

In May 1997, Bury North had a total of 1,347 out-of-work and an unemployment percentage rate of 2.4 per cent. Last November, the number of jobless was down to 834, or 1.5 per cent.