AROUND 730,000 UK workers have been removed from the payrolls of British companies since March when the coronavirus lockdown began, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics.
The ONS said that employment rates have continued to decline in the last month as another 81,000 jobs fell off payrolls across the country, pushing the number of employed to just under 28.3 million.
However, the official unemployment rate is not rising, at 3.9%. To be counted among the unemployed, workers need to be actively looking for a new job, which many have decided not to do yet, the ONS said.
However, this does not mean that the people in question do not want a job, said Jonathan Athow, the ONS’s deputy national statistician for economic statistics.
Dr Liz Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce said: “These figures continue to show how the furlough scheme has prevented severe job losses during the pandemic. But the rise in unemployment points to the direction of travel as the restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the virus start to cause real economic damage.
“It also points to the risks to livelihoods when the jobs support falls off a cliff edge in October.
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“To help businesses recruit and retain staff, more needs to be done to reduce the overall cost of employment and prevent substantial redundancies. This could include significant expansion of the Employment Allowance and a cut in employer National Insurance Contributions.”
Between May and June employment dropped by the largest amount in a quarter since 2009.
The over-65s, the self-employed and part-time workers were especially badly hit.
Meanwhile, the number of hours worked by British employees has dropped to record lows.
The ONS said that around 7.5m people were estimated to be temporarily away from work in June this year, most of them on the Government’s furlough scheme.
Around three million of these had been away for three months or more.
And around 300,000 people in the UK were away from work because of the pandemic but getting no pay last month.
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