The levels of unemployment are set to rise this week past £2million and it is expected to continue to rise all year.
Analysts have predict it will reach 3.3million before the jobs market recovers from the recession. The number of people looking for work, including everyone who is not eligible for benefits had reached almost 1.98million when the figures for the quarter to December were released last month.
New figures to be published on Wednesday by the Office for National Statistics are expected to show more people are now out of work than when Labour came to power in 1997, when the total was just over two million.