UK unemployment rate has reached its highest level in three years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The unemployment rate rose from 4.1% to 4.5% in three months. The Office for National Statistics stated that redundancies rose to the highest level since 2009.
Jonathon Athow, the deputy national statistician for economic statistics, said: “Overall employment is down about half a million since the pandemic began and there are particular groups who seem to be most affected, young people in particular.”
Between June and August, there was an estimated 1.5 million people who were unemployed. Mr Athow also stated that 300,000 people who are unemployed are aged 16-24 which makes 60% of the fall in employment. The large number of redundancies had been mainly focused on hospitality and travel agencies.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said to people who did lose their jobs that there would be new opportunities through apprenticeships and the £2 billion Kickstart scheme with extra support in searching for work.
Photo by Gary Butterfield on Unsplash
News credit: BBC
