One million blue collar jobs lost with Labour

Almost one million manufacturing jobs have been lost since Labour came to power.

Jobs in this sector fell to 3.24 million in the last quarter - 92,000 down on a year earlier and the lowest figure since records began in 1978.

The Office of National Statistics said there are now 999,000 fewer manufacturing jobs than in June 1997.

Today's quarterly figures show unemployment rose by 22,000 overall in the last quarter to 1.4 million after a big rise in the number of unemployed men.

The figures undermine Gordon Brown's claim that Labour is creating a full employment economy. Critics say that real job losses have been masked by the expansion in the public sector.

Shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin said: "These figures are truly disturbing. In the last three years of Conservative government manufacturing employment rose by 150,000.

"Under Mr Blair it has plummeted. It is little wonder that we are now 11th instead of 4th in the international competitiveness league."

But the number of people claiming unemploymentrelated benefit fell last month by 700 to 813,300, the lowest since the summer of 1975.

Employment is at a record high of 28.57 million. The employment rate is now 74.9 per cent. Minister for work Jane Kennedy said: "More people are moving from welfare back into work."