THE number of people out of work in Wales rose 1,000 between May and July, taking the jobless total to 132,000, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said today.

The number of 18 to 24-year-olds in Wales claiming jobseeker's allowance for more than a year was 4,455 in August - an increase from 1,130 in August 2011.

Across the UK, the Olympic Games delivered a boost to Britain's jobs market, with London one of the biggest gainers, after official figures showed another drop in unemployment as the part-time workforce soared.

The ONS said the jobless total fell by 7,000 to 2.59 million in the quarter to July - an unemployment rate of 8.1% - after a big jump in the number of people in work, with London one of the top gainers after hosting the Games.

The ONS figures revealed that London accounted for 91,000 of the 236,000 rise in the number of people in work in the quarter to July, which is the largest quarterly rise for two years.

There was also a big fall in those claiming jobseeker's allowance, down 15,000 between July and August to 1.57 million - the largest monthly fall since June 2010.

London accounted for 5,500 of the fall in the so-called claimant count, providing further evidence of an Olympics boost.

But the so-called "Olympics effect" masked a less rosy picture outside London, with some regions suffering hefty rises in unemployment.

And experts fear there could be an Olympics hangover now that the temporary boost from London 2012 is over.

The total number of people now in work stands at 29.6 million.

Samuel Tombs at Capital Economics said while the headline drop in unemployment was encouraging, the detail of the ONS report showed a "less impressive picture".

He added that other recent employment surveys suggested many of those taken on for the Olympics "will struggle to find work now that the Games have finished".