WORST SLUMP IN A CENTURY
New crisis as 4 million face dole
BRITAIN has plunged into its deepest recession for more than 100 years, dire economic figures are set to reveal this week.
They are expected to show our economy shrank by a staggering 21 per cent in the April to June in lockdown.
The three-month fall will be the year’s second consecutive quarterly period of negative growth – which is technically a full-blown recession.
The revelation comes during a tidal wave of job losses led by high street store closures amid warnings that four million could be on the dole by the end of the year.
The alarming figures will also increase pressure on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to extend his job retention scheme beyond October.
The respected Resolution Foundation think tank – which aims to improve standards of living for low and middle income families – says the scale of the nosedive will be like nothing in living memory. Director James Smith said: “The figures will demonstrate the speed and depth of the economic hit. The outlook is incredibly bleak.” The Foundation wants the taxpayerfunded furlough scheme, which has protected more than nine million jobs, to be continued for hardest hit sectors. Mr Smith added: “Mr Sunak is gambling with people’s jobs and livelihoods if he doesn’t act decisively.”
His call was backed by the TUC, which wants the Government to jump-start the economy now by investing in “green infrastructure” schemes, such as homes and transport, which it says would create more than a million jobs in two years. It also points out there are hundreds of thousands of vacancies that urgently need filling in health and social care.
General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The more people we have in work, the faster we can work our way out of recession.
“Protecting jobs is vital, but so is creating jobs. If mass unemployment is allowed to take hold it’ll be a much longer recession.”
The warning comes days after Pizza Express axed 67 outlets, putting 1,100 jobs at risk.
Dixons Carphone is to shed 800 store management posts and tour operator Hays Travel announced 878 jobs will go.
The Centre for Retail Research retail redundancies could top 235,000 this year.
June figures showed there were already 600,000 fewer people in work in May than in March. Boris Johnson has insisted he does not have a “magic wand” to save jobs.