Unemployment rises for second month

Unemployment rose for the second successive month, going up by 52,000 to 1.57 million in the three-month period to May but the unemployment rate remained steady at 5.2. There were 955,000 unemployed men (a rate of 5.7%) and 617,000 women (4.6%).

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

A regional breakdown of the figures shows substantial increases of 27,000 in the South East, 17,000 in the North West and 11,000 in Wales

Four of the 12 regions bucked the trend and saw falls in joblessness. In the East Midlands it was down by 10,000, by 9,000 in the North East and by 5,000 and 4,000 respectively in the East and Northern Ireland.

The claimant count showed a monthly rise of 1,300 to 952,400 - an unemployment rate of 3.2%.

TUC general secretary John Monks said that "unemployment figures highlight the fragility of the recovery in the labour market."

"With manufacturing still shedding an average of 15,000 jobs per month, there is still serious pressure on the Bank of England not to raise interest rates," he added.