Out–of–work figure increases by 3% in the UK

The number of households where all members are unemployed rose by 3 per cent in the last three months of 2011 compared with the previous year.

Official figures also revealed that the number of non-student households whose members have never worked rose by 21,000.

The number of households where all members are unemployed rose from 561,000 in October to December 2010 to 578,000 in the final quarter of 2011. The number of households, excluding student households, where all members have never had a job rose from 270,000 to 291,000.