HUDDERSFIELD has been making news in a national economic report – but mostly for the wrong reasons.

The Centre For Cities think-tank report, published yesterday, paints a gloomy picture of Huddersfield. The town appears several times in statistical tables covering 64 major town and cities in Britain, but is mostly in the bottom half.

The town has been singled out as one of the 10 worst areas in Britain for growth in private sector jobs.

According to the Cities Outlook 2012 report, the private sector employed 110,800 people Huddersfield in 2009. This fell to 105,100 in 2010, a drop of 5.1%.

This compares with the top town of Crawley, which has similar employment numbers to Kirklees. In contrast, Crawley saw a growth of 4.1% over the same period.

The survey highlights the growing gulf between Britain’s most prosperous cities and its poorest. Many of the towns and cities at the top of the tables were in the affluent south of England and East Anglia.

Huddersfield also fared badly in the lists of people claiming benefits, with increases in both young claimants as well as adults claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Languishing at 50th out of 64, Huddersfield has seen a rise of 2.3% in claimants of Jobseeker’s Allowance since February 2008. This compares with just a 0.5% increase in the top city of Cambridge.

Other Yorkshire manufacturing towns also had high rates of youth joblessness; Hull was bottom with 10%.

Huddersfield was 35th in the table for long-term claimants, behind York and Leeds, but ahead of Sheffield, Bradford, Barnsley, Doncaster and Hull.