"A MAJOR blow to the businesses and people of the town," has been the reaction to news that unemployment in Horncastle has doubled since the same time last year.

Figures released last week by the Office for National Statistics show there were 423 people out of work in the town last month compared to 374 in January and 214 last year.

That number equates to an unemployment rate of 2.9 per cent and is also an 102 per cent increase from February 2008 to 2009.

Michael Self, regional organiser for the Federation of Small Businesses, described the rise in unemployment as a "major blow to the businesses and people in the town."

He told the Target: "With more than double the number of people registering as unemployed in Horncastle in the last year, there is a real danger that we are already seeing the recession biting hard with local businesses.

"There was some hope that Lincolnshire might be better able than most to survive the credit crunch, but this terrible news may suggest that the opposite might be true."

The Horncastle statistics are above the 72 per cent increase across the UK and fourth in Lincolnshire, after Grantham (137 per cent), Stamford (128 per cent), and just behind Spalding and Holbeach (103 per cent).

In Lincolnshire as a whole the unemployment rate is 3.6 per cent with 14,753 people out of work.

That is an 16 per cent increase on January's figure of 12,739 and an 85 per cent hike compared to the 6,770 people who were jobless in February last year.

Lincoln has the highest unemployment rate in the county at 5.1 per cent (2,903 people).

The figures are calculated by the "travel to work" area and include Job Seekers Allowance claimants and National Insurance Credits.