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West Midlands business leaders and trade unions have described the region’s unemployment rate – which rose higher than anywhere else in the country between September and November – as “depressing and disturbing”. Unemployment rose by more than 22 per cent in the West Midlands, according to the Office for National Statistics. Almost 10 per cent of the region’s workforce is now unemployed.

Christine Braddock, president of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, described the figures as “shocking”.

She said: She said: “These latest shocking figures are even more reason for the government to provide businesses with the freedom to create jobs and wealth.

"More employment and more start-ups are needed. Public sector cuts, coupled with this month’s VAT increase and more legislation and red tape, will have an even further negative effect on the business community.”

Roger McKenzie, regional secretary of trade union Unison, said that the government's policies "risk sending our economy into a further downward spiral".

He said: "The West Midlands was the hardest hit region during the recession. Today we have more evidence that it is our region that is still suffering the most. Our economy is extremely fragile and the planned job cuts in the public sector will just add to this already deeply distressing and disturbing picture."

The latest unemployment statistics stated that the number of unemployed people in the West Midlands had risen to 264,000 – an unemployment rate of 9.9 per cent.

McKenzie said that the “drastic” government cuts had hit the public sector hard, as were now “haemorrhaging jobs every day”.

“These cuts dampen demand and hit private firms dependent on public sector contracts. The private sector is no knight on a white charger waiting to come to our rescue,” he said.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce said that the government had “a major role to play” in assisting those out of work to find a job.

Alan Durham, director of policy for the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “Unemployment across Coventry and Warwickshire has remained at around the same level since the last figures were released.

“Therefore, there is still a lot of work to be done to try and help more people into work and create more jobs – particularly for young people between the ages of 18 and 24 – especially with further proposed public sector cuts ahead of us as well.

“The government has a major role to play and should be doing all they can to help businesses and can do so by removing the barriers and red tape companies are continuously being faced with rather than introducing a raft of new legislations – like we have seen this week.”

Nationally, there was a rise of 49,000 people unemployed, talking the UK’s total to 2.5 million.