By Surge in number of people claiming benefits
Before the Covid-19 lockdown, employment in the UK had reached a record high. However, there has since been a huge surge in the number of people claiming benefits.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefit in the UK soared to 2.1 million in April, the first full month of the coronavirus lockdown.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the total in April jumped by 856,500.
Of course, this figure count does not include everyone who is out of work, since not everybody is eligible to claim, but it does indicate the trend.
The number of job vacancies also fell by nearly a quarter to 637,000 in the three months to April.
Claims for Universal Credit hit a record high in the early weeks of lockdown.
According to separate research by the Resolution Foundation, young people are most likely to have lost work or seen their income drop because of the coronavirus pandemic.
More than one in three 18 to 24-year-olds is earning less than before the outbreak, and younger workers risk their pay being affected for years, while older staff may end up involuntarily retired.
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed that UK unemployment rose by 50,000 to 1.35 million in the three months to March.
Jagjit Chadha, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said:
“We can reasonably expect unemployment to rise very quickly to something over 10% – something we haven’t seen since the early 1990s.”
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