Official figures have shown another big increase in the jobless total.

Unemployment rose by 232,000 to 2.26m in the three months to April, the figures showed.

The latest employment numbers were published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as protesters gather outside Lord Mandelson’s Business Department to highlight the rise in the number of young people out of work.

Youth Fight for Jobs said the protest in London will mark another expected increase in youth unemployment, which is already more than 16% among the under-25s.

Last month the ONS took the highly unusual step of bringing forward the eagerly-awaited publication of the data after revealing that some had been accidentally released early.

The figures showed that the number of unemployed people increased by 244,000 over the three months to March to reach 2.22 million, the biggest quarterly rise since 1981.

The claimant count was 1.51 million in April, up 57,100 over the previous month and up 710,700 over the year to reach the highest since August 1997.

The TUC has predicted that the number of people losing their jobs will carry on increasing until at least the autumn of next year, while the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development believes the public sector will be hit by 350,000 job cuts in the next five years.

Redundant workers have only a six-month window to find a job before the stigma of being unemployed kicks in, according to a report also being released on Wednesday.

Many employers are less likely to hire someone they consider to be long-term unemployed, according to the Institute of Leadership and Management – although unemployment does not initially carry the stigma that those losing their jobs might fear.