THE Government has been given some welcome good news on the jobs front when unemployment fell by 45,000 and the number of dole claimants dipped for the second month in a row.

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

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

Some key employment figures from the Office of National Statistics

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

Average earnings increased by 0.6% in the year to March, down by 0.5 percentage points on the previous month because of lower bonuses in the private sector. Average weekly pay in private firms in March was £2 lower at £460 compared to a year ago.

The 13,700 fall in the so-called claimant count last month was the biggest since July 2010. But other figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the number of people unemployed for more than a year increased by 27,000 to 887,000, the worst total since 1996. In the three months to March, a third of all unemployed people had been out of work for more than a year. The number of people unemployed for more than two years rose by 5,000 to 428,000.

The UK's unemployment rate has fallen by 0.2% to 8.2%, lower than the European average of 10.2%. Youth unemployment has also fallen, down by 17,000 over the latest quarter to 1.02 million.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said: "These figures are a welcome step in the right direction. For a number of months now, employment has been growing and this is starting to feed through into improving unemployment figures. However, we still face significant international uncertainty so we need to hold firm on our current economic strategy and continue to do everything we can to ensure unemployment continues to fall."

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said: "That there are 2.63 million people without jobs shows the extent to which the Government's gamble with the economy has failed. So instead of borrowing to support the economy and to continue the recovery the Government has had to borrow to fund the recession. We have spent the last two years going backwards and this is why the electorate have voted down this failed policy."

John Salt, director at totaljobs.com, said: "Today's statistics are proof, if it were needed, that not all that glitters is gold. The fall in unemployment barely dents the ranks of the jobless, whilst the number of under-employed - those forced into part-time work or self-employment - continues to grow relentlessly."