For the fourth consecutive month the number of people claiming unemployment benefit has risen, providing further evidence that the stuttering economy has begun to affect the jobs market.

According to figures published by the Office for National Statistics, the claimant count rose by 9,000 to 819,300 last month. The last time the figures rose for four months running was two years ago.

Total unemployment has also risen for the second consecutive month from 38,000 to 1.64m during the three months to the end of April, marking the highest level for more than a year.

David Kern, economic adviser to the British Chambers of Commerce, said that the figures conveyed “serious warnings that the economic outlook is worsening”.

He added: “Given the expected slowdown in economic growth, it seems very likely that unemployment will increase further over the next year … Against this background, expectations in some quarters that UK interest rates will have to go up soon are unjustified.”

The number of people in employment rose by 76,000 to a record high of 29.55m. Stephen Timms, employment minister, said that this showed there are still “plenty of jobs available for people looking for work”.

However, Geoffrey Dicks, chief economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland said the rise in jobs was not enough to provide work for all the increased number of people entering the country.

Nigel Meager, director of the Institute for Employment Studies, added: “Fears that the current economic instability could cause a downturn in the labour market are now beginning to be realised. In the wake of high- profile job losses in the finance and construction sectors … [the figures also revealed] sharp reductions in vacancies in some sectors, such as manufacturing, hospitality and finance.”

Statistics from the British Retail Consortium earlier this week raised the prospect that retail workers could well “be the next to join the dole queue”, Mr Meager said

John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said however that the fact employers were still actively employing staff, and there was no sign of redundancies indicated that the job market was “cooling only moderately”.

Mr Philpott said that the finance and business services sector remained “in the eye of the storm, shedding 20,000 jobs in the first quarter of this year … But shops, hotels and restaurants are suffering too and are now in a period of jobs standstill.”

As the City bonus season came to an end the annual rise in average earnings including bonuses dipped by 0.2 percentage points to 3.8 per cent during the three months to April.

The increase in average earnings excluding bonuses was only 0.1 percentage points higher, at 3.9 percent.