Jobless down, claimants up

Unemployment based on the Labour Force Survey figure - the government's preferred measure which includes people not eligible for benefit - fell by 22,000 to 1,494,000 in the three months to February compared to the previous three months.

This meant the unemployment rate fell to 5.1%. There were 902,000 unemployed men (a 5.7% rate) and 592,000 women (a 4.4% rate).

The claimant count has risen for the second consecutive month. In March it rose by 1,800 and the number of people out of work and claiming benefit was 939,900 - an unemployment rate of 3.1% of the workforce. The number of unemployed men rose to 706,400 (a 4.3% rate) and the number of unemployed women rose to 233,500 (a 1.7% rate).

National Statistics figures show that the number of people in employment rose by 234,000 in the three months to February compared with a year ago. However, the number of jobs in the battered manufacturing sector fell by 140,000, or 3.8%, to 3,553,000 in the three months to February compared with a year earlier.

The largest falls came in the electrical and optical equipment sub-sector, with 45,000 fewer jobs.