Jobs cheer as Scots and UK unemployment figures show marked drop

SCOTLAND’S unemployment rate has fallen in the latest sign that the jobs market is recovering in the wake of Covid-19.

The percentage of people looking for work during the January-march 2021 period dropped by 0.2 per cent to 4.3%, according to official figures.

It came as Britain’s jobless rate also declined and payroll numbers surged higher, with employers hiring again, thanks to the easing of lockdown measures.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) cheered “early signs of recovery” as the UK unemployment figure fell once more, to 4.8% in January to March – the largest quarterly decrease since September to November 2015, and down from 4.9% in December to February.

More real-time figures showed workers on payrolls jumped for the fifth month in a row in April as Britain’s economy began to spring back to life.

The ONS said the number of payroll workers rose by 97,000 between March and April, while it added that job vacancies also continued to increase as shops and outdoor dining reopened last month.

The latest figures show that vacancies hit the highest level since before the pandemic struck, at 657,000 between February and April.

Estimates showed vacancies recovering close to pre-pandemic levels in early April as firms began rehiring ahead of an expected surge in pent-up consumer demand, the ONS said.

The fall in the unemployment rate came despite the country being in tight lockdown in the first three months of 2021, with the ONS saying many unemployed were no longer looking for work.

But the data also showed the toll taken by the crisis on the jobs market, with 772,000 fewer UK workers on payrolls than before the pandemic struck last spring.

Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: “The number of employees on payroll rose strongly in April as the economy began to reopen, continuing the improvement from its November trough. There remains, however, three quarters of a million people fewer on the payroll compared with the pre-pandemic peak.”

There were 1.6 million Britons unemployed in January to March, down 121,000 on the previous three months, according to the ONS.

And there were 32.5 million in employment, up 84,000 on the previous three months, in a sign of resilience in the face of lockdown.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said:

“Protecting and creating jobs continues to be my top priority.

“While sadly not every job can be saved, nearly two million fewer people are now expected to be out of work than initially expected – showing our Plan for Jobs is working.”

The Bank of England recently slashed its forecasts for unemployment over the year, now predicting that the jobless rate will peak at 5.5%, down from the 7.75% previously forecast, thanks to a more rapid economic bounceback expected in 2021.

We expect redundancies to pick up again from July

The extension of the furlough scheme has helped soften the blow to unemployment, while the growth rebound is set to see most furloughed employees return to work when it ends.

But Samuel Tombs, at Pantheon Macroeconomics, cautioned that some hard-hit sectors will continue to suffer once furlough ends. He said: “We expect redundancies to pick up again from July, when employers will have to cover 10% of the missing wages of any furloughed staff, and in September, the final month of the scheme.”