Gustav Klimt Hygieia (II) painting

Gustav Klimt Hygieia (II) paintingGustav Klimt Goldfish (detail) paintingGustav Klimt Beethoven Frieze painting
total is now 1.79million and forecasters said the nightmare level of three million unemployed may be reached by 2010 - a milestone that could turn into a millstone for Labour in a likely general election year.
The new unemployment figures were bleak confirmation that the credit crunch has been hurting ordinary individuals and families even before the dramatic banking crisis of the last fortnight begins to take effect.
It is the biggest increase over a quarter since 1991, during the slump that led to John Major's Black Wednesday fiasco. Unemployment was last at three million in the first quarter of 1993.
The latest figures show the jobless rate at 5.7 per cent, up from 5.2 per cent in the spring.
Numbers of employees in the private sector fell, according to yesterday's breakdown. Over the past year their ranks have dropped by 347,000. But, in the three months to August, public sector employment rose by 13,000 to 5.77 million.
Mr Brown - in Brussels for talks with EU leaders - greeted the figures with what his enemies were calling a Marie Antoinette moment.