Unemployment has risen for the second month running, according to official figures.

Data for the period between April and June revealed the number of people out of work increased by 27,000 to 1.44m.

But the number of people claiming benefit fell by 13,700 to 835,200 and average earnings increased by 4.4% in the year to June.

The claimant count is at its lowest since 1975 and the number of people out of work for longer than a year has fallen by 18,000 to 290,000.

There were 658,300 job vacancies in the UK last month, an increase of 74,100 compared with a year ago.