SHOCK new figures show the average wage for full-time male workers in the North- East fell by 8.2 per cent over the past 12 months – a pay cut of £45 a week.

The figures coincided with a rise in the jobless total in the North-East, which climbed by 6,000 to 148,000 in the three months to the end of March this year, an unemployment rate of 11.5 per cent.

This meant the North-East was one of only four regions in the UK to experience a rise over the period – nationally unemployment fell by 45,000 to 2.6 million, the lowest since last summer.

Meanwhile, unemployment fell in Yorkshire and Humberside by 24,000 to 241,000, an unemployment rate of nine per cent.

The Northern region of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said the figures contrast with the Government’s claim that we are “all in this together”.

The organisation seized on wage figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing that for men in the North-East the average weekly wage for the full-time employee dropped from £549 in January to March 2011 to £504 between January and March this year.

Across both sexes, the average full-time wage over the past 12 months fell £22 from £499 a week to £477 a week, a 4.5 per cent decrease – not including inflation and rises in the cost of living.

But women’s average weekly wage in the North-East went up by £16 from £416 to £432 – a 3.9 per cent rise. The TUC said there was huge pressure on wages, with jobs that were being lost in the regional economy of higher value than the jobs that were replacing them.

It said that as well as public sector pay freezes, some private sector employers were being “opportunistic” by continuing to post decent results, but keeping pay down.

Regional secretary Kevan Rowan said: “Every family is having to make increasingly difficult decisions to make ends meet and this can have severe knock-on effects. We are picking up growing signs from workplaces that the tightening squeeze on living standards is increasing stress, anxiety and sickness.

“It’s not in employers’, employees’ or society’s interests to keep on driving down pay.”

Mr Rowan said the North- East had on average nine jobseekers for each vacancy, compared to three in the South-East. “The Chancellor is more interested in making it easier to fire people rather than hire them,” he said.

North Durham Labour MP Kevan Jones said: “The Government may welcome the latest national unemployment figures, but there is little cause for optimism here in North Durham. They must change course and do more to stimulate better-paid jobs and growth in the North-East.”

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “It is welcome that we have had the largest rise in unemployment for over a year, but we are not remotely complacent. There is still too many people in part-time work who want full-time work, and we also still have the challenge of tackling long-term unemployment.”

Nearly 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 1.4 million.

The ONS also said the number of people unemployed for more than a year increased by 27,000 to 887,000, the worst total since 1996.

Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King yesterday attacked the rapidly growing crisis in the eurozone amid fears that the problems could hamper UK efforts to grow its economy.

He ruled out a return to prefinancial crisis levels of growth before 2014 with the bank only expecting insignificant growth in the economy this year.