Britain: unemployment rises to 5.4 percent

Britain: unemployment rises to 5.4 percent

The Office for National Statistics said the number of people claiming jobless benefits rose by 5,900 last month to 956,600 - its 15th increase in the last 16 months. The index records the number of people claiming jobseekers allowance.

The sequence of monthly rises is the worst since the early 1990s, when the so-called claimant count increased for 31 months in a row. Job cuts in manufacturing continued, with the number of workers in the sector reaching the lowest level since records began in 1978,according to the AP.