Unemployment falls to 2.56 million
Unemployment in the UK fell by 46,000 in the three months to June, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.
There are now 2.56 million people out of work in the UK, taking the unemployment rate down to eight per cent of the economically active population.
It means that 71 per cent of the population are now in employment, the highest figure since the three months to May 2009. An additional 201,000 people found work between April and June, up 0.4 per cent on the previous quarter.
The largest jump in employment occurred in London, believed to be a result of the thousands of jobs created from the Olympic Games.
Work and pensions secretary Ian Duncan Smith said: "These are positive and encouraging figures demonstrating the strength of our private sector - notwithstanding the difficult economic times it is still creating jobs, the vast majority of which are full time. Unemployment is falling and the claimant count is down."
David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) warned there were still 'areas of concern'.
"Youth unemployment is unacceptably high, and too many people are still being forced to work part-time as they cannot find a full-time job. While unemployment is likely to increase over the next 12-18 months, the peak may now be lower than the 2.9m figure we predicted in our last forecast."
While full time employment increased by 130,000 to reach 21.41 million, the number of part-time workers also increased by 71,000 to reach 8.07 million, the highest figure since records began.
The number of employees and self-employed people who said they working part-time because they could not find a full time job rose by 16,000 taking the total to 1.42 million - also the highest figure since the records began two decades ago.
Elsewhere, total pay rose by 1.6 per cent on a year earlier, while regular pay packets, excluding bonuses rose by 1.8 per cent on the year. Around 1.59 million claimed for jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) in July, down 5,900 compared with June.