U.K. Unemployment Rate Rises to Highest in Almost Five Years

[dutchman]

More than half of those who lost jobs are younger than 25



U.K. unemployment climbed to its highest rate in almost five years in the fourth quarter as the economic toll from the coronavirus pandemic continued to mount.

The number of people looking for work rose 121,000 from the third quarter, taking the jobless rate to 5.1%, the most since early 2016, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday. The number of people in work fell by 114,000.

The figures increase pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to deliver on his pledge to do “whatever it takes” to support workers and business through the pandemic. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said he will use his budget on March 3 to extend government support programs due to expire in the coming weeks.

“Every job lost is a personal tragedy,” Sunak said in a statement. “That’s why throughout the crisis, my focus has been on doing everything we can to protect jobs and livelihoods.”

Unemployment has been held down by tens of billions of pounds of wage subsidies, which were still supporting almost 4 million jobs at the end of last year following the deepest economic slump in three centuries. Adding time to the furlough program beyond April 30 could mean that Britain avoids many of the job losses currently predicted by economists.

The Bank of England expects the jobless rate to peak at 7.8% in the third quarter if the furlough program finishes as currently planned. That’s almost 2.7 million people, compared with 1.7 million the end of last year.

The number of redundancies rose by 29,000 in the quarter to 343,000, marking the smallest increase since the second quarter of the year. Self employment accounted for all of the decline in the number of people in work.

Data based on tax returns showed the number of people on company payrolls rose almost 83,000 in January despite tougher measures to fight a second wave of the virus that closed schools and most non-essential businesses. Still, that number is still down by 726,000 since February, before the pandemic struck. Of those that lost jobs, more than half -- 425,000 -- were younger than 25.

[rebbonk]

I'll wager good money that the true figures are far higher.

However, there should be no surprise as Bozo the clown has successfully trashed the economy and once furlough finishes we will see the figures climb even higher.

[dutchman]

You can make unemployment (or inflation) any figure you like by changing the way you measure it.

There are 10.3 million people of working age in the UK claiming benefits but they are not 'unemployed' according to the government.