Jobless total soars to 2.2 million

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Data showed a quarterly rise of 244,000 - the biggest increase in the number of people looking for a job since 1981.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance increased by 57,100 to 1,513,000, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS took the highly unusual step of bringing forward the eagerly-awaited news from Wednesday after revealing that some data had been accidentally released early.

Unemployment has now increased by 592,000 over the past year.

The UK's unemployment total is now 2,215,000, the worst figure since 1996.

The quarterly unemployment increase was 12.4% of the total, worse than most analysts had predicted.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "This is another set of dreadful figures.

"Some people in the City are already talking of a recovery. But the only recovery in the real world will be when unemployment starts to fall.

"Unemployment is still the country's number one emergency and the Government must use all possible means to address it."