Ministers have welcomed the latest employment figures as a success for the government's New Deal, but a new report has suggested the growth in the number of jobs is slowing.

Figures published on Wednesday showed that claimant count unemployment fell 6,200 in December.

The data came in the week that the Conservatives vowed to scrap Labour's flagship job creation programme.

And work and pensions secretary Alan Johnson said that abolishing the New Deal, which the Tories say has has no effect, would cost 300,000 jobs.

"The Tory record on employment speaks for itself. That record left us with a huge challenge in 1997 and one of our first jobs on coming into government was to bring unemployment down," he said.

"To do this we invested in the New Deal so that support and training was there - first for young people, then all adults, then lone parents, and disabled people. The New Deal has stopped people staying on [job seekers' allowance] for ever and helped over a million people move of welfare and into work.

"And we built Jobcentre Plus which gives back to work help for people no matter what benefit they are on - ensuring we tackle overall worklessness and not just unemployment. In the past there were dole queues round the block and people received handouts not help from run down offices.

"Today's employment figures show our approach is working. In total more people in work than ever before, up 99,000 since the last quarter and up two million since 1997. The numbers on unemployment benefit is down 6,200 from last month, has been halved since 1997, and is at its lowest level for 30 years."

Labour campaign chief Alan Milburn added: "None of this happened by chance.

"It happened because of the hard work of the British people – businesses and workers. And it happened because of decisions taken by government, whether Bank of England independence or the New Deal."

However, the shadow work and pensions secretary said ministers were wrong "to defend their bureaucratic employment programmes".

"There are now more young people who are neither working nor studying nor training than there were before the New Deal was introduced," said  David Willetts.

"While Labour complacently defend policies that haven't worked, the evidence shows that we need for a fresh approach to helping people get back to work."

Survey

Meanwhile, the prediction that employment improvements are decelerating will concern the chancellor, who has banked on continued growth to pay for current levels of spending.

A survey of 1,300 employers by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development showed fewer than half expected to have more staff by the end of the first quarter of the year.

The lowest level of recruitment will be in the public sector amid a drive to reduce the number of civil servants.

Lack of demand for goods or services and budget cuts were the main reasons for any redundancies being planned.

Just over half of those polled said they expected recruitment problems to continue, but few thought pay rises would exceed four per cent.

CIPD chief economist Dr John Philpott said: "The tight labour market is creating real difficulties for employers seeking to recruit new employees and retain existing ones.

"With pay restraint seemingly remaining the norm, employers are investing more time and effort in improving recruitment efforts.

"Many are also paying greater attention to work-life balance and family friendly policies in order to attract new staff, and retain and motivate the existing workforce.

"With the outlook for wage inflation seemingly benign, despite a tight labour market, the survey adds weight to the view that interest rates have peaked."