Record jump in unemployment sees jobless total pass 2m

Unemployment in Britain surged past the 2m mark yesterday as the number of people claiming benefits rose by 138,400 in February – the biggest monthly rise since records began in 1971.

The jobless figure now stands at 2.03m and the unemployment rate is now 6.5 per cent of the workforce. There has been a record drop in vacancies and a record rise in redundancies.

The news puts prime minister Gordon Brown under more pressure to combat the deepening economic crisis, and there were bitter exchanges between him and Tory leader David Cameron during prime minister's questions in the Commons.

But the Times reports that jobs and pay are still rising in the public sector. It says that according to official figures, 30,000 jobs were created in the public sector last year, while 105,000 were lost in the private sector.

The gap between the growth in pay in the public and private sectors also rose. As companies slashed salaries and bonuses, earnings in the public sector continued to rise faster than inflation. Public sector pay rose by 3.7 per cent in the year to January 2009. Private sector pay fell by 1.1 per cent in that period.