Unemployment continues to rise

Unemployment is at a seven year high. Under the Labour Force Survey (LFS) count it was up by 45,000 to 1.7 million in the three months to August 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 up to 5.5%. There were 977,000 unemployed men under the count - a 5.9% rate - and 726,000 women - a 5.1% rate.

Unemployment under the claimant count was at its highest since 2001. Under this count, which only includes those drawing Jobseeker's Allowance, unemployment rose by 10,200 to 962,000 in September from 951,800 in August. The unemployment rate under this count was steady at 3.0%.

The manufacturing sector continues to lose jobs with 82,000 lost in the three months to August compared to a year earlier. They now number just 3.04 million.

The number of people who said they were made redundant in the three months to August was 135,000 - a 10,000 fall on the previous three months.

The good news was the total employment level rose by 120,000 over the quarter to reach 29.01 million, the highest figure since comparable records began in 1971, and the working age employment rate was up by 0.1 percentage point to 74.6%.