Unemployment increased by 140,000 to an 11-year-high of 1.82 million between July and September.

The number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance last month increased by 36,500 to 980,900.

The Office for National Statistics figures came out a day after more firms announced job cuts, adding to the worsening toll of redundancies spreading across manufacturing.

The biggest cuts were at cable group Virgin Media, which said it was axing around 2,200 UK jobs by 2012 under a sweeping restructure.

Yellow Pages directories firm Yell warned it expected to lose another 1,300 jobs from its business over the coming year, housebuilder Taylor Wimpey confirmed it had axed a further 1,000 jobs as it said property sales slumped by 27 per cent since the beginning of July, and technology firm Psion announced more than 200 job cuts after the company warned on profits.

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) added to the gloom by unveiling plans to close a factory with the loss of 620 jobs following a review of its activities.

The site in Dartford, Kent, is earmarked for closure in 2013 because two of its largest products have been hit by a "substantial" decline in forecast demand.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "More than 5,000 job losses in a day is a shocking statistic that brings home just how serious the recession is hitting families across the country.

"But we should never treat these as just statistics. Each will be a very human story, and as it gets harder and harder to find new jobs many will now be facing a huge cut in their weekly income with benefits so low.

"On average unemployment is now rising at more than a thousand a day."

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