The UK's unemployment rate has risen to 5.4%, the highest in six years, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The unemployment tally rose 90,000 in the three months to May to 1.65m. This brings the jobless rate to 5.4%, the highest since the autumn of 2000. The number of people employed was 28.9m. The claimant count for June rose to 956,600, up 5,900 from May. It has risen for 15 of the past 16 months.

Ian Brinkley, economist and director of the Work Foundation's knowledge economy programme said: "The simultaneous increase in employment and unemployment is due to a mixture of demographics and more people of working age deciding to look for work. In the latest quarter both the total working age population expanded and more people previously classified as 'economically inactive' started looking for work."