Nearly 1,500 have joined the county’s dole queue as recession continues to decimate the jobs market.

According to figures published on Budget Day, the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance across Kent and Medway now stands at 34,192, a rise of 1,498 over the previous month.

Medway’s jobless toll went up 275 to 6,635 (4.2 per cent of the workforce), while across the rest of the county, it rose by 1,223 to 27,557 (3.3 per cent).

These figures represent an annual rise of 2,805 in Medway and 14,015 across the rest of Kent, a combined increase of 16,820, almost half the present total.

All areas of the county were affected, with Dover showing the lowest numerical rise - 28 - and the highest in Thanet (196).

Ashford, Maidstone, Dartford, Sevenoaks, Thanet and Tonbridge and Malling all suffered three-digit increases.

Nationally, unemployment went up 177,000 to 2.1 million.

The latest figures made grim reading for the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling as he prepared to confirm the dismal state of the UK economy.

It was the biggest quarterly rise since 1991. The unemployment rate has reached 6.7 per cent, the highest since the Government came to power in 1997.

The number of unemployed people has risen by 486,000 in the past 12 months.

The claimant count - the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance soared by 73,700 to 1.46m, which is 672,100 more than a year ago.The claimant count has not been higher since September 1997.

The redundancies level for the three months to February 2009 was 270,000, up 45,000 over the quarter and up 162,000 over the year. This is the highest figure since comparable records began in 1995.

The number of people in employment for the three months to February 2009 was 29.27 million, down 126,000 over the quarter and down 227,000 over the year.

There were 462,000 job vacancies in the three months to March 2009, down 68,000 over the previous quarter and down 230,000 over the year.

This is the lowest figure since comparable records began in 2001. Most sectors have shown falls in vacancies over the quarter with the largest falls occurring in distribution, hotels and restaurants (down 26,000) and finance and business services (down 19,000).

Jobless figures on March 12: Kent and Medway combined, 34,192; Medway, 6,635 (up 275); Rest of Kent, 27,557 (up 1,223); Ashford, 1,978 (up 139); Canterbury, 2,390 (up 91); Dartford, 1,897 (up 123); Dover, 2,298 (up 28); Gravesham, 2,559 (up 95); Maidstone, 2,313 (up 122); Sevenoaks, 1,445 (up 108); Shepway, 2,447 (up 67); Swale, 3,228 (up 74); Thanet, 3,993 (up 196); Tonbridge and Malling, 1,626 (up 102); Tunbrdige Wells, 1,383 (up 78).