695k jobs lost since start of lockdown
Young worst hit by the cull
SOME 695,000 workers have lost their jobs since the start of lockdown in March, raising the spectre of mass unemployment.
Young people have been hit hardest after a record 146,000 drop in 16 to 24-year-olds in work in the three months to July.
There were a total of 156,000 redundancies over the period, in the biggest rise since 2009, Office for National Statistics figures reveal.
Unemployment is now 4.1%, with 1.4 million out of work.
The job crisis sparked calls for Chancellor Rishi Sunak to extend furlough, a demand of the Mirror’s Keep Britain Working campaign.
The Treasury said the proportion with wages paid by the state fell from 30% in May to 11% by mid-August. But more than three million still rely on it. TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Ministers must protect and create jobs.”
Echoing her call, Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, has written to
PM Boris Johnson to act before the “redundancy floodgates” open. Today marks 45 days until the Job Retention Scheme ends, and bosses need that long to meet redundancy notice rules.
Mr Sunak, visiting pottery firm Emma Bridgewater yesterday, said: “We were clear we couldn’t save every job.” Neil Carberry, of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, said: “The rise in unemployment for young people is a particular concern.”
Yet vacancies have also risen, up 30% to 434,000. A Treasury spokesman said: “The furlough scheme has done what it was designed to do – save jobs and help people back into employment. Some 1,150 Labour councillors have urged Mr Johnson to keep furlough and aid industries. They back ex-PM Gordon Brown’s Alliance for Full Employment drive.
The rise in job losses among the young is of particular concern
NEIL CARBERRY OF THE EMPLOYMENT FEDERATION