THE Government was given some welcome good news on the jobs front today when unemployment fell nationally by 45,000 - but it jumped by 6,000 in the North-East.

The jobless total was 2.6m in the quarter to March, the lowest since last summer, while the number of people claiming jobseekers allowance last month was down by 13,700 to 1.59m.

However in the North-East, the unemployment figure rose by 6,000 to 148,000, a rate of 11.5 per cent.

Nationally, the number of people in work increased by 105,000 to almost 30m, but this was entirely due to a rise in part-time workers.

Almost eight million people are now in a part-time job, the highest since records began in 1992, while those working part-time because they cannot find full-time work increased by 73,000 to a record high of 1.4m.

Self-employment has also reached a record figure of 4.1m, up by 89,000 since the previous quarter.

Average earnings increased by 0.6 per cent in the year to March, down by 0.5 percentage points on the previous month because of lower bonuses in the private sector.