Millions face a bleak Christmas without work despite government glee yesterday at a slight rise in the employment rate.

Trade unionists revealed the dark underbelly of Tory ministers' gloating with women among the hardest hit by joblessness.

Female unemployment in the Northern TUC region is up 32 per cent in the last 12 months.

Regional secretary Beth Farhat said a 3,000 drop in unemployment "disguises a far uglier truth."

She said: "Female unemployment in our region actually rose by 4,000.

"In the same period last year there were 47,000 female jobseekers. That figure now stands at 62,000."

Yorkshire and Humberside TUC regional secretary Bill Adams said that in his region 7,000 more women are on the dole this year.

"Two-thirds of public sector workers are women and with George Osborne announcing more savage cuts the coalition's policies will continue to hit women hard," he warned.

North-west TUC secretary Lynn Collins said that despite figures showing a 29,000 rise in employment the region was blighted by long-term unemployment and low pay.

The grim picture was in stark contrast to the government triumphalism after official figures revealed a 99,000 quarterly fall in the jobless total.

Prime Minister David Cameron said it was "great news" and Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander hailed "another landmark on the long road to recovery."

But 2.3 million were officially classed as unemployed, 8.92m as economically inactive, and 1.47m were forced to work part-time because they couldn't find a full-time job.

The Office for National Statistics classifies anyone working an hour or more a week as "employed."

Long-term unemployment fell slightly to 866,000, while the number of jobless 16 to 24-year-olds dipped to 941,000.

And the amount of cash in people's pockets fell in real terms as inflation wiped out a feeble 0.9 per cent average pay rise in the year to October.

GMB general secretary Paul Kenny demanded that politicians focus on "better-quality jobs and full employment."

Public-sector union Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said the figures "mask the reality of widespread underemployment, with too many people in low-paid, part-time work or on zero-hour contracts."

And Unite counterpart Len McCluskey warned that the cost-of-living crisis is "forcing working people to (use) food banks this Christmas."