THE number of women seeking work is understated in official figures with more females than males wanting to join the Labour market, a new study claims.

The report, entitled Women Want Work, claims the unemployment count only gives a partial and limited picture and excludes women, such as mothers and carers, who have not applied for a job in the past month.

According to the authors, unemployment figures ignore those wanting work and if these were included the statistics would more than double.

Of the combined tally most are women, sparking criticism of the Tory Government for ignoring women with caring responsibilities but wanting work.

The TUC report also warns female public sector workers will be amongst the worst hit by cuts due to be announced by the Chancellor next year.

It comes on the heels of recent figures showing around 54,000 British mums could be forced out of their jobs each year because of discrimination.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission last week said 11 per cent reported having been dismissed, made compulsorily redundant where others in their workplace were not, or treated so poorly that they felt they had to leave their jobs.

One in five new mums said they had experienced harassment or negative comments from their colleagues or boss when they were pregnant or returning from maternity leave.

According to the TUC, the full ‘want work’ count, the combination of the unemployment count and economically inactive people seeking work, is 4,103,000 people.

Unemployment, which presently stands at 1,827,000, only counts people who have applied for a new job within the past four weeks and are immediately available to start, and not others who want work.

Although the unemployment rate is higher for men, it is the reverse for the measure of economically inactive people who are seeking work. The unemployment rate for men is 990,000 and for women it is 815,000. However, there are 1,379,000 economically inactive women seeking work, compared to just 920,000 men.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Six years on from the recession, the culture of low expectations on jobs and pay is well past its sell-by date. Reducing the claimant count alone is not good enough if there is still an additional two million people who want a job but don’t have one.

“The government should be especially concerned about the lack of progress for women with caring responsibilities who want to work. There are nearly 300,000 more women looking for work than men, and the gap is not closing.

“Given the number of women who work in public services, there’s a big danger that cuts due to be announced in November will mean major job losses, along with a reduction in family friendly job vacancies and a further rise in the number of women seeking work.”

The report claims the number of women in paid work had been rising over several decades but that this had slowed down dramatically at the end of the 1990s, describing the current movement as "glacial".

But according to the Department for Work and Pensions, the number of inactive women in the labour market has fallen by more than 400,000 since 2010.

A DWP spokesman said: “We want everyone to succeed and achieve their full potential regardless of gender, and under this Government female employment is at a record high.

“Employment measures are determined by the independent Office for National Statistics and are based on international guidelines.”