Jobless count creeps up

The latest unemployment figures showed a rise on both official counts.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) figure - which includes people not eligible for benefit and is the government's preferred measure - rose by 36,000 to 1,495,000 in the three months to April compared to the previous three months. The unemployment rate was steady at 5.1%.

In May 2003, the claimant count rose slightly but is still at its lowest level since 1975. The number of people out of work and claiming benefit was up by 3,100 to 950,800 - an unemployment rate of 3.1% of the workforce.

Government figures also show that the number of manufacturing jobs fell by 3.7% or 134,000 to 3.53 million in the three months to April compared to a year earlier.

Sir Bill Morris, general secretary of the T&G general union, called for concerted and urgent action to halt the fall in manufacturing jobs.

"Hidden within today's figures is further evidence of the special problems facing manufacturing in the UK," he said. "With industrial-based jobs now at their lowest since records began in 1984 there is a clear imperative for action. We cannot continue to export our manufacturing jobs and skills at this unsustainable rate."