10th November, 2020
Britain’s unemployment rate has jumped to 4.8 percent as the coronavirus pandemic destroys a record number of UK jobs, official data showed Tuesday.
The reading for the third quarter compared with an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent for June-August, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.
The UK unemployment rate was 0.9 percentage point higher than a year earlier and 0.7 percentage point up from the second quarter of 2020.
For July to September 2020, an estimated 1.6 million people were unemployed, up 318,000 on a year before and up 243,000 on the previous quarter. The annual increase was the largest since December 2009 to February 2010, and the quarterly increase was the largest since March to May 2009.
Market consensus, according to FXStreet, forecast the rate at 4.8%.
The UK employment rate was estimated at 75.3%, 0.8 percentage points lower than a year earlier and 0.6 percentage points lower than the previous quarter.
“The estimated employment rate for people aged between 16 and 64 years had generally been increasing since early 2012, largely driven by an increase in the employment rate for women. However, there has been a decrease since January to March 2020, coinciding with the start of the coronavirus pandemic,” the ONS said.
In the third quarter, the ONS said the number of employed people fell each month.
“The net flow into unemployment was 214,000; the largest net flow into unemployment on record. This was driven by those moving from economic inactivity to unemployment, which contrasts with the small net flow from unemployment to economic inactivity seen in April to June 2020,” the ONS continued.
It added: “Labour market flows estimates show that the number of people aged 16 to 69 years, who moved job between April to June 2020 and July to September 2020 because of redundancy or dismissal was 106,000, the highest level since records began in 2001. Meanwhile, the number of people who moved job between these periods because of resignation was 105,000, the lowest level since January to March 2009.”
AFP