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British businesses should make sure they maintain a diverse workforce in order to fulfill customers' expectations, JobCentre Plus has said.

The government's nationwide employment agency said that 56 per cent of UK customers said they would respond more positively to a business if they knew it employed those from under-represented backgrounds.

Ensuring having representative numbers of those from diverse backgrounds was viewed as being important by 79 per cent of the 2,000 respondents of JobCentre Plus' survey.

"This research proves to employers that being committed to diversity is not a business choice, but a business imperative," Lesley Strathie, chief executive of Jobcentre Plus said.

"Customers and employees want to shop and work in environments which reflect their local communities; by broadening the scope of their recruitment base, employers can plug skills gaps, improve retention and increase productivity."

Today's research reflects strenuous efforts by the government to increase the numbers of those who are female, elderly, disabled or from an ethnic background into the job market.

But both the percentage of the population currently unemployed and the total number of people in unemployment are rising at present.

"Our focus must be on helping people who are out of work to get into the labour market. And since 1997 we have been successful - employment is up by more than 2.5 million, unemployment is down, and the new deal has helped more than a million into work," a Home Office spokesperson said.