Figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) released today, for the three months to September 2008, put the numbers of unemployed at 1.82m, or 5.8%, with manufacturing jobs falling to 2.86m – the lowest since records began in 1978.

Experts predict that the national figure will exceed 2m within months.

The number of those claiming Job Seeker's Allowance also rose to its highest in seven years to 980,900, while the number of vacancies fell.

Unite urged the government to make jobs and homes the priorities for the forthcoming pre-Budget report.

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, said: "Every single one of these job losses is a personal tragedy but also a real loss of skills and productivity to the UK economy.

"It is time once and for all to part company with the hard-faced economics and City gamblers that got us all into this mess in the first place."