Blair wrong to claim cut in jobless

Tony Blair, in his last speech to the TUC conference, was happy to break protocol and announce a drop in unemployment before the official release of the figures.

But he was wrong - unemployment is at its highest level since December 1999. Under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count, it was up by 93,000 to 1.7 million in the three months to July compared with the previous quarter. The LFS count is the government's preferred measure and includes people not eligible for benefits.

The unemployment rate under this count was up to 5.5%. The number of unemployed men rose by 44,000 to 983,000 (a 5.9% rate), and the number of unemployed women rose by 49,000 to 716,000 (a 5.1% rate).

Unemployment under the claimant count did fall, however. Under this count, which only includes those drawing Jobseeker's Allowance, unemployment fell by 3,900 to 950,100 in August from 954,000 in July. The unemployment rate under this count was steady at 3.0%.

The manufacturing sector continues to lose jobs, with 91,000 lost in the three months to July compared with a year earlier. They now number just 3.04 million. In the three months to July, 142,000 people were made redundant - a fall of 8,000 on the previous three months.