More than a million women now out of a job

Yesterday's Office for National Statistics figures also showed that the number of workers in part-time jobs because they cannot find a full-time work have reached a record high.

There was a 31,000 increase in the number of women out of work in the three months to September.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Female unemployment has been rising for over a year and hit a 22-year high this autumn.

"With the Office for Budget Responsibility predicting half a million further job losses in the female-dominated public sector, women look likely to suffer rising joblessness for some time to come."

Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: "There are signs that cuts in public spending are already having an adverse impact on job prospects for women, with the unemployment rate for women now at seven per cent – higher than at any point since the start of the jobs recession in 2008."

The Government concentrated on other figures which showed that unemployment in the UK fell by 9,000 to 2.45 million in the latest quarter, while the numbers claiming Jobseeker's

Allowance fell by 3,700 in October to 1.47 million.

Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the fall in unemployment as a "good sign" that the Government's "private-sector led recovery" had taken hold.

The number of full-time workers fell by 62,000 to reach 18.17 million; part-time employment was almost eight million, up by 142,000 from the quarter to June.