Britain's unemployed population has hit almost two million workers, official figures released Wednesday said.

The number of unemployed workers rose by 131,000 to 1.92 million between September and November 2008, the highest total since September 1997. That does not include those jobs cut since November when the country entered a deep recession, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported.

About 225,000 people were made redundant in the period, while those claiming job seeker's allowances increased by 77,900 to 1.16 million, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The unemployment rate was 6.1 percent for the three months to the end of November, compared with 5.2 percent in the same period of 2007. It is the highest jobless rate since the three months to the end of April 1999, the BBC said.

Referring to the figures as "very disappointing", Employment Minister Tony McNulty predicted things would "get worse before they get better."

It is predicted that the number of jobless people will have exceeded two million in the last three months of 2008, when figures are released in February.

(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2009)