The part-time workforce has reached record levels in the three months to May as people struggled to find permanent jobs in the recession, official figures showed.

At the same time, long-term unemployment – those out of work for more than a year – grew nearly 50pc to a 13-year high of 787,000, Office for National Statistics data shows.

Part-timers rose by 148,000 over the quarterly rise to 7.82 million, the highest level since records began in 1992. The number of full-time employees is now 18.2m.

The ONS said that a record 27pc of the total workforce was now in part-time employment, with the category accounting for the vast majority of the 160,000 rise in total employment – the biggest quarterly jump since August 2006.

Long-term unemployed rose by 61,000 over the quater and is now up 47.5pc compared with the same quarter last year.

The figures overshadowed a 34,000 fall in unemployment to 2.47 million in the three months to May and a fifth successive fall in the claimant count, which was down by 20,800 to 1.46 million in June.

The number of economically inactive workers – which hit record levels in the quarter to April – edged down by 0.2pc to 8.1 million. This is the first fall in this category since March last year.

But those classing themselves as “long-term sick” reached 2.04 million, the highest level since March 2007.

The number of Britons claiming jobless benefit fell by slightly more than expected last month, while the number of people in employment rose by its most in almost 4 years, helped by a record rise in part-time work, official data showed on Wednesday.

The Office for National Statistics said the number of people claiming jobless benefit fell by 20,800 in June, its fifth consecutive monthly fall and a slightly bigger fall than the 20,000 analysts had forecast. That pushed the claimant count rate down to 4.5 percent, the lowest since March 2009.

The number of people without a job on the wider ILO measure fell by 34,000 to 2.468 million in the three months to May. That took the jobless rate to 7.8pc, the lowest since January and below forecasts for a reading of 7.9pc.

The figures suggest Britain’s labour market may be slowly recovering, although there are risks ahead from government spending cuts which could lead to thousands of lay-offs in the public sector.

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