Union warns against complacency

Despite a fall in unemployment according to two official counts, Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of general union Unite, warned against "complacency" in the fight for full employment and pointed to worrying research from Sheffield Hallam University that found Britain had another 1.7 million "hidden jobless".

"There has been a big increase in the number of people classed as 'economically inactive', and that includes those who have given up hope of ever getting a job," said Woodley.

According to one of the counts, the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the number of jobless was down by 15,000 to 1.7 million in the three months to April compared with the previous quarter.

The LFS count is the government's preferred measure and includes people not eligible for benefits. The unemployment rate was steady at 5.5% with unemployed men making up 5.8% of the count and women 5.1%.

Meanwhile, unemployment fell for the eighth successive month under the claimant count, which only includes those drawing Jobseeker's Allowance. The count was 880,400 in May - a 9,300 fall on April.

The unemployment rate under this count was also down at 2.7%. The number of unemployed men on benefit dropped to 3.7% and the number of unemployed women to 1.6%.