The labour market statistics shows the employment rate for the last quarter is 74.2% - a drop of 0.4% from the previous quarter. This means the number of people in employment has dropped by 115,000.
The number of job vacancies stands at 562,000 - a drop of 49,000 from the last quarter.
The earnings annual growth rate remains unchanged from the previous quarter at 3.3%. The average hours worked is 32 per week, which is a drop of 0.1 hours from the three months prior to July 2008.
Nigel Meager, director of The Institute for Emplyment Studies, said: ""The hike in unemployment announced today is worryingly close to the kinds of increases experienced in recessions of the early 80s and 90s. The UK has entered the current downturn in better shape than it was in those days, with lower unemployment, a more flexible labour market and a mobile pool of migrant labour. It is a measure of the severity of the current downturn that these mitigating factors are no longer sufficient to keep the lid on increases in unemployment. "
