Commenting on yesterdays GDP figures, Andrew Sissons, researcher at The Work Foundation, said: "Growth of 0.5% is an unexpected piece of goods news for the economy. It is particularly encouraging to see growth in business services, which will be key to the recovery, although growth in the production sector of the economy remains relatively slow.
"But this good news does not disguise a labour market which has been in freefall over recent months, and it is worrying to see government services making the most significant contribution to growth.
"The UK is far from out of the economic danger zone. The greatest threat is of stagnation or low growth over the next year or two, which would most likely lead to further increases in unemployment, and would make it much harder for the government to control the budget deficit.
"These figures should spur the government on to address structural problems in the UK economy, and to put in place the conditions for much stronger growth over the medium-term. Economic recovery requires decisive action to unlock finance for fast-growing firms, to stimulate mass investment in research and innovation, and to address the UK's underlying trade problem."
And Unite the trade union said the "paltry" figure masks the true nature of the crisis facing the British economy.
Unite said the improvement between July and September is disguising what is really happening in the wider economy, such as the failure of the upsurge of promised private sector jobs to take up the slack from the jobs losses in local and central government which may reach 600,000 by 2015-16.
Unite general secretary, "We should not be fooled by the superficial gloss that ministers will put on this paltry figure of 0.5%. The British economy is still heading towards the rocks of a double-dip recession, unless [chancellor]George Osborne introduces a much-needed Plan B rescue package.
"People are losing their jobs and those that have them feel insecure, so they are not going out to spend in the High Street - the promised boost in private sector jobs to soak up the job losses in the public sector is an illusion masquerading as a truth. It is clear that more demand needs to be injected into the economy urgently.
"The savage cuts to the public sector will hit the local economies in cities and towns across the UK and, as a result, will cause more economic pain to families and communities.
"The Government has abdicated responsibility for the wider British economy and it only has one card to play - its much-discredited deficit reduction programme; George Osborne's manifesto of misery."
