The number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) has risen unexpectedly across the UK over the past month by 37,100 to 1.56m – a rise of 3.3%.

The Liverpool city region fared slightly better with the number of JSA claimants increasing by 1.78% to 54,064. The figure rose by 3.2% in the North West to 190,696.

Across the city region, Halton suffered the biggest rise in claimants – up 4.5% to 4,261. Liverpool saw the smallest rise – up 0.6% to 21,042.

All the other boroughs also saw a rise in claimants with Knowsley up 1.7% to 5,890, Wirral up 1.8% to 8,919, Sefton up 2.8% to 8,723 and St Helens up 2.6% to 5,229.

Chancellor George Osborne admitted official figures revealing an unexpected rise in unemployment were “disappointing” but not “entirely unexpected”.

The country’s jobless rate stood at 2.49m, or 7.9%, between April and June, the Office for National Statistics said.

The increase was the largest since May 2009 and the first since January, while economists had expected a fall of around 10,000.

Within the figures, the number of unemployed women hit levels not seen in more than 23 years, while youth unemployment  moved closer to the politically sensitive 1m mark.