HULL has been named as the most difficult place to find work in the UK.
New research conducted by Adzuna, a search engine for job adverts, found about 55 people chased every vacancy in the city last year.
It comes after Hull suffered more than 1,000 job losses in a few weeks when a number of major employers announced the closure of sites across the city.
Hull East MP Karl Turner said he was not surprised to hear of the results of the study.
He said: "Hull has been dealt some heavy blows, with the loss of a number of major firms across the city, but we are doing all we can to stem the tide of job losses.
"We need to get more people working and more people training and not claiming.
"The Government seems to be uninterested in what is happening in the north and that is extremely worrying.
"Youth unemployment is a ticking time bomb and the Government needs to wake up and realise that."
Recent job losses at firms including Seven Seas, McCain and Comet have compounded the unemployment problem, but Mr Turner remains optimistic about the year ahead.
He said: "We have to accept some businesses are failing in this current economic climate, but it is not all doom and gloom.
"It is no good telling people it is all OK because it is not, but that doesn't mean things can't improve.
"I am excited about what this year could bring. Hopefully, we will see more investment in the city and that could all start if we can get the deal to bring Siemens to Hull signed and sealed."
The study revealed the top employer in the country last year to be the London 2012 Olympic Games, creating about 100,000 jobs, although most of them were temporary.
Mr Turner said the emphasis placed on the number of jobs created on the back of the Olympics needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
He said: "There is a clear north-south divide and it is increasing under this Government.
"The Olympic Games was a fantastic event but a vast amount of the jobs created were temporary.
"The Government has said one million private sector jobs have been created in the past two-and-a-half years but they are very much in the south and temporary."
Adzuna said a search of half a million vacancies showed computing, engineering and finance were the most buoyant sectors last year, with average salary rises of 6 per cent over the second half of the year.
It also predicted the number of part-time jobs will increase by 4 per cent in the first few months of this year.
Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said: "We expect unemployment to continue to fall in 2013, with technology and engineering sectors performing the strongest in the first half of the year."
According to the study, supermarkets created more than 30,000 jobs, while other leading employers were named as Royal Mail, the NHS, Deloitte and Ryanair.
