The Office for National Statistics announced today (Tuesday) the overall number of people in full-time employment in the three months to March this year was 21.67 million - a drop of 160,000 since December 2008 - but the number of people working in the public sector has increased by 15,000 from September last year to its December 2008 total of 5.78 million.
In the three months prior to March this year, 7.3 million people in part-time employment but the TUC reports 11.2% of those are only there because they are unable to find full- time employment elsewhere.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Unemployment is the country's number one emergency and the Government must use all possible means to address it. Some people in the City are already talking of recovery. But the only recovery in the real world will be when unemployment starts to fall."
David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, also believes it is up to the Government to offer help. He added: "Unemployment continues to rise in the face of a worsening recession. We know businesses do not want to lose key employees but they are struggling with cash flow.
"The Government must ensure that our economy does not suffer a damaging loss to our essential manufacturing skills base. This means ensuring public funds are properly in place to provide training and making it as easy as possible for employers to recruit and hold onto staff.
"Introducing a temporary short-time working scheme and scrapping the planned increase in National Insurance would provide real help at this critical time."
Unemployment at 2.2 million is 'the country's number one emergency'
Unemployment has reached a 30-year high of more than 2.2 million and, according to the TUC, it has become "the country's number one emergency".
