UK jobless rate hits 4.5%

LONDON: Britain’s unemployment rate rose by more than expected in the three months to August, before the end of the government’s broad coronavirus job-protection plan and the imposition of new restrictions to slow the pandemic. The jobless rate hit 4.5 percent, its highest in more than three years and above the forecast of 4.3 percent in a Reuters poll of economists.

The number of people counted as unemployed rose by the most since 2009, during the global financial crisis, and the Office for National Statistics revised up its estimate of job losses earlier this year, raising its estimate of unemployment in the three months to July to 4.3 percent.

“Since the start of the pandemic there has been a sharp increase in those out of work and job hunting but more people telling us they are not actively looking for work,” Jonathan Athow, the ONS’s deputy national statistician, said. “There has also been a stark rise in the number of people who have recently been made redundant.”

The ONS data showed redundancies jumped by a record 114,000 on the quarter to 227,000, their highest level since 2009. The number of people in employment fell by 153,000, much higher than a median forecast for a fall of 30,000 in the Reuters poll. Finance minister Rishi Sunak reiterated yesterday that his priority remained to slow the rising job losses. However, he is replacing a 50 billion-pound wage-subsidy scheme, which expires at the end of this month, with a less generous program. —Reuters