WORKERS in Chester-le-Street clock up more hours than anyone else in the North-East and North Yorkshire - but people in Redcar and Cleveland take home the biggest pay packets.

New statistics have revealed big differences in the number of hours worked and the level of earnings across the region.

They show the average Chester-le-Street worker puts in 36.4 hours per week, compared to just 33.2 hours in Middlesbrough, where people work the least.

But although the average Chester-le-Street weekly pay packet (£374.40) is much bigger than Middlesbrough (£343.60), it is smaller than Redcar and Cleveland (£390.30).

Yet the average working week in Redcar is only 34.1 hours.

The next biggest earners are in Sedgefield (£378.20), ahead of Chester-le-Street.

The smallest North-East pay packets are handed out in Hartlepool (£323.90), followed by Derwentside (£326.90), Easington (£330.20) and South Tyneside (£330.50).

The earnings gap is even wider in North Yorkshire, where people in Hambleton (£395.40) earn the most and those in Ryedale earn the least (£300.80).

Workers in Hambleton put in more hours (35.2) than their counterparts in Rydale (34.1), but only slightly more.

Both sets of figures calculate the average for people in employment in each area, so they are not distorted by different levels of joblessness.

Across the North East, men spend an average of 35.8 hours at work, earning £443.30, while women work 29.2 hours, earning £273.70.

Meanwhile, in North Yorkshire, men work 39.5 hours on average, earning £469.10, while women work 29.4 hours to earn £279.60.

Details of working routines and earnings, published by the Office of National Statistics, will revive claims that the North-South divide is widening.

The average pay packets in both the North East (£355.20) and North Yorkshire (£375.60) are less than two-thirds of earnings in London (£590.30).

To add insult to injury, the average Londoner works only 35.1 hours - less than people in Chester-le-Street - but they earn £215.90 more

National Statistics has boasted that its 2004 figures are its most accurate yet, because they are based on questionnaires instead of simply tax returns.

It admitted previous statistics had missed significant numbers of employees that change job during the year.