UK unemployment up by 14,000

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The so-called claimant count went up by 7,200 in March to 806,300, the third consecutive monthly rise and the biggest monthly increase since April 2006. The last time the count rose for three months in a row was two years ago, said the Office for National Statistics.

The total number of unemployed, including people not eligible for benefit, increased by 14,000 in the three months to March to 1.61 million, the highest since the end of 2007. The last time both sets of jobless figures increased at the same time was September 2006.

Manufacturing jobs continued to reach a record low, down by 27,000 in the latest quarter to 2.9 million compared with a year ago, the worst since comparable records began in 1978.

Despite the increase in unemployment, the number of people in work increased by 117,000 in the three months to March to 29.54 million, a record high, reflecting an increase in the working-age population.

There were 22 million people in full-time jobs, up by 84,000 from the end of last year, and 7.5 million part-timers, a rise of 33,000. The number of people in public sector employment increased by 7,000 to 5.7 million by the end of last year, while jobs in private firms rose by 154,000 to 23 million.

Average earnings increased by 4% in the year to March, up by 0.3% on the previous month. Wage growth in private firms was 4%, compared with 3.8% in the public sector, according to the new data.

There were 682,800 job vacancies in the UK in the three months to April, up 6,700 from the previous quarter.

The number of people classed as economically inactive, including those looking after a sick relative, people who have taken early retirement or who have given up looking for work, fell by 33,000 in the latest quarter to 7.88 million, 20% of the working age population.

There were 67,000 working days lost through industrial disputes in March, the highest since last December, taking the yearly total to 982,000, three times higher than the year to March 2007.