The number of people in part-time work only because they cannot find a full-time job is at its highest level in 15 years, the TUC has said.

One in nine part-timers now find themselves in that position, it said, which it claimed reflected the lengths people would go to to stay in work.

There were now 829,000 people working part-time involuntarily, the TUC said, the most since 1994.

Unemployment figures due on Wednesday are set to rise sharply again.

The most recent set of data said unemployment in the UK had risen to 2.1 million, up 486,000 from a year ago.

And the TUC warned that the new figures would show the jobless total was on course to hit 2.5 million by the summer.