Unemployment shifts upwards

Unemployment rose by 19,000 to 1.55 million and the unemployment rate rose to 5.2% in the three months to April compared with the previous three-month period. There were 958,000 unemployed men (a rate of 5.8%) and 595,000 women (4.4%)

The figures are based on the International Labour Office definition, which includes people not eligible for benefit and is the government's preferred measure.

Five of the 12 regions saw a rise in the number of jobless. The biggest rises were 6,000 in the North West and 5,000 in the East Midlands.

In two regions - Yorkshire and the Humber and Scotland - the count was unchanged and there were falls in joblessness of 6,000 in the North East and Northern Ireland.

The claimant count fell by 7,000 to 944,600 - an unemployment rate of 3.2%.

TUC general secretary John Monks said: "The overall stability in the labour market is marred by the remorseless loss of jobs in manufacturing. Another 11,000 went in April, taking job losses over the preceding year to 180,000. It is premature to talk about interest rate rises until the manufacturing recovery becomes much more firmly established."

Manufacturing jobs fell below the 3.7 million mark in April.