Nearly 10 million adults in Britain are currently out of work, one in four of the working population, the Government admitted yesterday.

Official figures showed there are 1.65 million people who are unemployed, with a further 7.9 million defined as “economically inactive”.

The latter group includes more than two million people who are on long-term sickness benefits as well as students, people who have taken time off work to look after their family and those who have taken early retirement.

Opposition politicians said last night that the figures exposed the true scale of hidden joblessness under Labour. They said the 7.9 million figure was the second highest total on record and more than two million of the people who are economically inactive were keen to find a job.

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