Virus drives up redundancies to record high

RECORD numbers of staff were axed ahead of the expected end of the furlough scheme, as the coronavirus jobs bloodbath continues.

A total of 370,000 workers lost their jobs in the three months to October, according to the Office for National Statistics – 217,000 more than in the previous three months.

And 819,000 jobs have now been wiped off company payrolls since the start of the pandemic. Around a third are in hospitality, the worst-hit sector. Firms stepped up cuts ahead of the scheduled end of the furlough scheme, with the taxpayer paying the wages of 9.6m workers.

It was due to close at the start of November but Chancellor Rishi Sunak extended it as England was plunged into a second lockdown last month.

However, companies had already laid off many staff, and thousands who could have been kept on furlough were jobless. Sunak now faces criticism for failing to extend the scheme earlier, and not warning that it might continue.

Matt Kilcoyne, of think-tank the Adam Smith Institute, said: ‘Several European countries were extending their support as the second wave hit, so it looks like the decision to leave it so late was a political decision with real consequences for livelihoods.’

The unemployment rate has climbed to 4.9pc, the highest in more than four years and up from 3.7pc a year ago. Around 1.7m people are out of work.

The Government expects unemployment to hit 7.5pc between April and June.

And 2.7m people are on benefits because they are out of work or on extremely low pay.

There were some bright spots. Job vacancies rose to 547,000 in the three months to November, the highest since the pandemic began. And average annual earnings rose by 3.5pc in October.