The actual number of those unemployed will be much higher, as the official figure does not take into account the tens of thousands of job losses that have occurred since November.
The figures also showed there were 530,000 job vacancies in the last three months of 2008, down just under 70,000 from the previous quarter and the lowest figure since records began in 2001.
The number of redundancies has reached a record high with 225,000 occurring between September to November in UK companies.
"Every job loss, every redundancy, is a matter of regret and sadness for us all," said Prime Minister Gordon Brown during Prime Minister's Questions.
When the next figures are released in February it is expected that unemployment will stand at over two million.