Unemployment has gone up by a staggering 45% in mid-Ulster over the last year — the highest rise in the UK.

In the 12 months since August last year, the number of people out of work went up from 761 to 1,108, according to figures uncovered by the Conservatives.

South Down also recorded a significant hike from 1,154 to 1,589, a 37% increase, putting the area seventh in the table, closely followed by Upper Bann where the number of jobless rose by 36%.

Across the UK, west Belfast still has one of the worst rates of unemployment, with one in 10 people, 3,050 in total, claiming job seekers allowance.

Nationally, more than 100 constituencies recorded increased jobless levels in the last year of over 20%, prompting calls from the Tories for a special debate in the House of Commons to press the Government over unemployment and the threat to jobs.

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Chris Grayling, said: “The sharp rise in the unemployment figures in the past few months gives real cause for concern, and the government needs to take urgent steps to do what it can to protect jobs.

“We want to see better protection for otherwise sound businesses that fall into short term difficulties, and we think Ministers should accelerate their plans for welfare reform to give those who do lose their jobs much better back to work support. There is no time to be lost.”

Last quarter figures for Northern Ireland recorded overall unemployment at 4.4%, up from 3.9% in the previous quarter and 3.5% in the same period last year.

It comes as the UK’s economic crisis spiralled, with Chancellor Alistair Darling forced to draw-up an emergency bail-out package to prop up the banking system.

Economic experts have also made gloomy predictions that unemployment could return to 1980s levels of three million, although University of Ulster economist Michael Smyth claimed last month that Northern Ireland is better-placed to weather the storm because of the strength of the public sector.