London - Unemployment in Britain has risen sharply to reach 1.79 million or 5.7 per cent of the workforce, its highest level since 1999, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Wednesday.

The figures relate to the second quarter of this year, up to the end of August, a period during which unemployment increased by 164,000.

The rise - the biggest since 1991 - took the official unemployment rate to 5.7 per cent from 5.2 per cent in the previous quarter.

In September, the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance increased by 31,800 to 939,900, the eighth consecutive monthly rise and the highest figure for almost two years.

In a further sign of the economic slowdown, the number of people in work and the number of vacancies both fell, the figures showed.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said its surveys suggested the worst was still to come, with recruitment slowing and redundancies rising.

"It's simply that the crunch effect is intensifying, and will continue to intensify into next year," said the organization's chief economist, John Philpott. (dpa)