The number of people out of work has fallen by 76,000 over the past year.
Other figures showed that the number of so-called economically inactive people, including those not looking for a job or who do not want to work, fell by 91,000 in the latest quarter to 7.74 million, which was still 6,000 higher than a year ago.
There were 591,500 job vacancies across the UK last month - an increase of 31,100 over the year.
Jobs in manufacturing firms continued to fall, down by 102,000 in the past year to 3.4 million, the lowest since records began in 1978 .
There were 213,000 working days lost because of industrial disputes in February, the highest figure for over a year.
The UK has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world at 4.8 per cent compared with 11.2 per cent in Spain, 9.4 per cent in France, 9.3 per cent in Germany, 9.2 per cent in Greece and 8.5 per cent in Italy.
Monday April 19, 2004
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