NEWS that a record number of people in the region are now in employment has been met with warnings that the positive statistics mask a harsh reality.

The latest labour figures released by the Office for National Statistics show that the North-East has reached 70 per cent employment, with more than 1.21 million people now in work.

This is an increase of 54,000 from last year and is the highest number in employment since regional records began 22 years ago.

The region also saw one of the largest decreases in the number of unemployed, but still has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 9.4 per cent.

Yorkshire and the Humber’s unemployment rate is 7.8 per cent, which is also above the national average of 6.4 per cent.

Despite the seemingly positive rise in employment for the North-East, Darlington MP Jenny Chapman urged caution.

She said: "I think the phrase 'lies, damn lies, and statistics’ is appropriate here because certainly the data isn't borne out by the experience of people day-to-day in the North-East.

“There are many people who are not working as many hours as they would like or as many hours as they need to in order to support themselves and their families.”

Ms Chapman said that less hours and lower wages meant residents were not only struggling with their month-to-month expenditure but also their future plans were being affected by an inability to borrow or get mortgages.

The TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said that self-employment was responsible for almost half of the rise in overall employment and Unite general secretary Len McCluskey described the British economy as being in a “Jekyll and Hyde situation”.

He said self-employment forced workers into “a state without rights and with wage insecurity” and was often used by employers who wanted to swerve their responsibilities.

Alex Cunningham, Labour MP for Stockton North, said that many of his constituents told him that although they may be in work, they do not feel well off.

He said: “Energy and food prices are going up much faster than wages and people are still finding it very tough.”

Mr Cunningham also pointed out that many skilled jobs were being lost in the region, only to be replaced with those of a relatively lower economic value such as call centre work and minimum wage jobs.

He said: “They don’t pay a living wage and we need to get to an economy that pays a living wage, not just a minimum wage.”

However, Mauricio Armellini, chief economist of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership said that the trend towards more self-employment was not confined to the region and it was not necessarily a bad thing.

He said: “If you look at the private sector we have a deficit of private businesses in the North-East - we need more business.”

He added that although unemployment is still higher in the region than the rest of the country, it was also going down faster than anywhere else.

Regional statistics on the number of self-employed people are not available, but it is believed that one in six people nationally is self-employed and their wages are not included in the ONS pay figures.