Commenting on new statistics on the Suffolk economy fromthe Nationwide 'Parliamentary Constituency Profiler' Mr Ruffley said:

'New figures out this week show 15% of the workingpopulation of Bury St Edmunds are in skilled trades, as opposed to 11% of theUK wide working population. Only 10% of our local population have noqualifications whatsoever, whereas the UK wide average is worse at 13%. Thisclearly shows that the people of Bury St Edmunds have the know how and drive tobounce back in these difficult times.

With 14.7% of those employed in my constituency beingself employed, in contrast to 9.1% of the UK working population as a whole, itis clear to me that the people of Bury St Edmunds have the kind of selfdetermination to get up and go. Small businesses and the wealth and jobs theycreate will help us all weather the difficult economic times ahead.

The current unemploymentrate of Bury St Edmunds is 8.45%, slightly higher than the UK wide unemploymentrate of 7.8%. This is clearly something that needs to be addressed, and I willbe pressing the relevant Ministers to make sure that the Government is doingall that it can to help the small and medium sized businesses that are so importantto the local economy of Bury St Edmunds