The UK’s unemployment rate rose for the first time since the coronavirus lockdown began in March, sending a warning signal ahead of an expected surge in job losses when a huge government job subsidy programme expires next month.
The unemployment rate increased to 4.1 per cent in the three months to July from the 3.9 per cent it had clung to since early 2020. The government’s coronavirus job subsidy scheme has shielded millions of workers and there were fewer job losses than feared. Redundancies increased by 48,000 on the quarter to 156,000, the biggest rise in over 10 years, but the level remained well below that seen during the 2008 downturn.
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