New figures, which show record numbers of people in employment, have been welcomed by employment minister Caroline Flint.

The Labour Market figures show employment is up 132,000 on the year and up 84,000 on the quarter. The number claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell 4,000 in August to 852,900. It is down 100 thousand over the year.

Flint said: "Once again we have a strong set of labour market figures with record numbers in work. We have made real improvements since 1997 - reducing the number of people claiming unemployment benefit by almost half and seeing numbers on all main out of work benefits fall in total by around a million.

"But, we are determined to reach full employment, something which would have been unimaginable ten years ago."