WORKERS’ wages are still tumbling down the Con-Dem cliff even though dole queues are getting shorter, with experts warning yesterday that the coalition’s economic carve-up has made it more difficult than ever to make work pay.

The average worker is £1,600 a year worse off compared with before the 2010 general election.

That’s despite Office for National Statistics figures showing yesterday that fewer people are unemployed than at any time since 2008.

But more than a million people still have to claim jobseeker’s allowance to get by and there were actually increases in unemployment in Scotland and north-east and south-west England.

Official statistics showed that average earnings rose by a measly 0.7 per cent when bonuses were excluded — the lowest since 2001 and well below inflation.

New Economics Foundation senior economist James Meadway said there was no cause for optimism.

“What the new figures show is that, despite some brave talk from ministers, the longest sustained decline in workers’ living standards since the 1870s continues.

“It’s no use saying more jobs are being created if that means that half of the 13 million people living in poverty are actually in work.

“The richest 1,000 people in the country have seen their wealth double since the 2008 crash, to £520 billion, but average real earnings have fallen by 9 per cent.

“What we need is both a sustained programme of investment to create decent jobs.

“The government could easily use its current low cost of borrowing to invest in sustainable work — the state-owned KfW in Germany, for example, has employed 200,000 people a year since 2001 by paying for home loft insulation.”

Despite a drop of 61,000 since this time last year, there are still 1.3m part-time workers looking for full-time jobs.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said there was “growing concern over the quality of jobs being created.

“Today’s workforce is increasingly made up of workers on casual and zero-hours contracts, and those who are termed self-employed but struggling to make a living,” he said.

His worries were echoed by Unite general secretary Len McCluskey.

“We must always remember that the growing number of self-employed have no rights or protections, let alone a stable income.”

Labour shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves welcomed the fall in unemployment but slammed ministers for building a recovery only for the few.

“Out-of-touch ministers are failing to stand up for people who work hard, do the right thing and contribute but are left struggling to make ends meet,” she said.

She reiterated a series of Labour pledges to help ordinary people, including a freeze on energy bills and extended free childcare.