FIGURES showed yesterday that unemployment had reached a new low, with more people in work than at any time in the past 20 years.

But jobs in manufacturing continued to fall, down to 3.4 million, the lowest number since records began in 1978.

A total of 1.41 million people were jobless in the three months to March.

There was good news for the North-East, where unemployment fell by 13,000 to 62,000 in the past quarter.

This compared with the country's high in London of 6.9 per cent unemployed, and the low in the South-West of 2.9 per cent.

Nationwide, the claimant count was 2.9 per cent, unchanged on the previous month, yesterday's figures from the Office for National Statistics showed.

Average earnings increased by 5.2 per cent in the year to March, up by 0.3 per cent from the previous month.

The unemployment rate now stands at 4.7 per cent.

Other figures showed that the number of economically inactive people, including those not looking for a job or who do not want to work, fell by 80,000 in the past quarter to 7.76 million.

The Liberal Democrats accused Chancellor Gordon Brown of twiddling his thumbs while manufacturing jobs were being lost.

Brendan Barber, Trades Union Congress general secretary, said: "The job market continues to go from strength to strength, but manufacturing workers are still losing their jobs in droves.

"There is no room for complacency, companies need to invest more and government investment must rise to the level of our European competitors."