Anyone seen Dave? Or George? Or Iain? Or Chris?

This morning at 9.30am it was revealed that unemployment rose 47,000 in the last quarter of 2011 to 2.67m. The ONS also announced that youth unemployment for the period is up 0.3%, and the number of people claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance has increased to 1.6m. You’d think that the Prime Minister or the Chancellor might have responded to this news. But unfortunately, just as they did last time unemployment figures were released in November, they’ve avoided them.

This time they’re joined by the Work and Pensions Secretary and the Employment minister – Iain Duncan-Smith and Chris Grayling.

This isn’t the first time the two top Tories have gone missing (especially Osborne), so we’ve set up a clock below to show you how long it is that they’ve been silent since the figures were released.

The PM has been doing his best to distract the media by talking about binge drinking – so he’s clearly in the UK and “hard at work”, but surely it’s time that he, the Chancellor – or either of the two ministers responsible – explain how they’re planning to tackle unemployment? Or even mention it? Until they do, we’ll be keeping the timer running…

Update: Cameron was spotted saying the government would do “everything they can” to help the unemployed last night. But still no sign of the others – let us know if you see them…