British unemployment rose to its highest level in more than a decade in the three months to September as the economy tips into recession, official data shows today.
The Office for National Statistics said the number of people without a job rose to 1.825 million in the three months to September, the highest level since the three months to December 1997.
That took the jobless rate on the international ILO measure rose to 5.8%, the highest since the first three months of 2000.
The number of people on jobless benefit rose by 36,500, the biggest increase since December 1992, when Britain last suffered a severe recession.
Average earnings growth in the three months to September, including bonuses, eased to 3.3%.
