Eight people are chasing every job vacancy across Bradford – more than anywhere else in West Yorkshire.

The figures, which come ahead of new unemployment data published tomorrow, show the reality facing more than 18,000 people on out-of-work benefits across the district.

Latest figures show there are 2,423 job vacancies in Bradford available meaning 7.5 people are chasing every position. Across Kirklees the ratio is five people for every job, 4.8 in Calderdale, 4.1 in Leeds and 3.3 in Wakefield.

Nationally four people are chasing every vacancy, with the worst hit areas including West Dumbartonshire, which has 20 job seekers for every vacancy. In contrast Crawley, Cambridge, South Bucks, North Warwickshire, Harborough, Daventry and City of London have one or fewer job seekers for each vacancy listed.

Think-tank IPPR North, which collated the figures, wants the Government to introduce a new jobs guarantee to make sure anyone out of work for a year or more would get a work placement or training.

Ed Cox, director of IPPR North, said: “The Government’s youth contract is a step in the right direction to help tackle the unemployment problem but more needs to be done to help the areas of the UK where people are really struggling to find work.

“The Government should guarantee a job for everyone who has been unemployed for more than a year paid at the minimum wage, targeted at the worst affected areas first but then rolled out everywhere.”

The grim figures place Bradford as the eighth worst urban area in the north.

Experts predict unemployment will not fall below 2.5 million until at least 2016 but instead peak at 2.9 million next year.

John Philpott, chief economic advisor of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), forecast that the UK’s jobless rate will jump to 8.8 per cent at the end of 2013 amid continuing cuts in the public sector. He said this year will be “dire rather than disastrous”.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “The Government is committed to taking every step to help people back into work. That is why we created the Work Programme, the biggest back to work scheme since the Second World War.

“Alongside this we have unveiled the youth contract – working with leading businesses and voluntary groups to help young people take those first crucial steps into the workplace. We are determined to give everyone the skills they need and that employers want so they can take advantage of job opportunities.”