THE south west has bucked a trend for unemployment to drop in the first three months of the year.

Total unemployment including those not eligible for Job Seekers' Allowance, fell by 15,000 to 1.4m in the three months to March, the lowest since last autumn. The most recent figures for Swindon have not been released, but those for the south west show that there are 90,000 unemployed in the region, up 6,000 in the three months up to March, which puts the local jobless rate at 3.5 per cent.

Nationally, the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefit has increased for the third month in a row.

The so-called claimant count rose by 8,100 in April to 839,400, a jobless rate of 2.7 per cent.

The data, from the Office for National Statistics, did not cover recent high-profile job loss announcements affecting thousands of workers at MG Rover, IBM and Marconi.

New work minister Margaret Hodge said the figures showed the strength of the UK labour market. "With nearly three-quarters of working-age people in work, we have the highest employment rate of the major world economies.

"We have set our sights on an employment rate of 80 per cent. This is an ambitious, long-term aim but the process of achieving it starts now."

But Tony Woodley, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, said: "Today's further fall in manufacturing jobs, influenced no doubt by the collapse of MG Rover, shows the pressing need for Government action.

"What we really need now is a much more strategic approach by this Government in its third term.

"As a start, we should redefine public-private partnerships so Government can act to support key manufacturers in the same way the French and Germans would do."