JOBLESS rates fell by 13,000 in the North-East during the January to March period, the latest figures have revealed.

However, the North-East still has the UK's second highest unemployment rate at 6.4 per cent - with 72,000 people recorded as being out of work.

Meanwhile, jobless rates grew by 2,000 to 124,000 in Yorkshire and the Humber, which has an unemployment rate of 5.1 per cent.

The figures, released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), revealed that unemployment had fallen across the UK and that a record number of people are in work, despite continued job losses in manufacturing.

Almost three-quarters of the working-age population has a job, and the employment level of 27.86 million is the highest since records began almost 20 years ago.

Unemployment fell by 6,000 in the first quarter of the year to 1.5 million, while the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefit was 2,100 lower last month, at 936,900.

The rate for women was 4.4 per cent, the lowest on record, according to the ONS.

Minister for Work Nick Brown said the figures, coupled with news that 10,000 new jobs were being notified to jobcentres every working day, showed that the labour market continued to improve.

But union leaders said other data showed that another 135,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in the three months to March compared with the same period last year.

Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, said the unemployment figures masked the depth of the crisis in manufacturing.

''The Government cannot stand by like an idle spectator. They must become an active Government. A start could be made by linking public procurement with public expenditure policy within the competitive rules."

Brendan Barber, the TUC's general secretary elect, said: ''There is nothing here to weigh against an interest rate cut. The longer rates are held, the more manufacturing will suffer."