UK employment falls by biggest quarterly amount since 2009

  number of people in employment in U.K. fell by 220,000 in three months after country was put into lockdown as a result of coronavirus pandemic, official figures showed Tuesday.

That quarterly decline, which took total number of people in employment to 32.92 million, is biggest since deep recession in 2009 in wake of global financial crisis.

statistics ncy also said that number of people on payroll in U.K. fell by a a furr 81,000 in July, taking total decline since start of pandemic in March to 730,000.

update continues recent trends, with falls in employment accompanied by significantly reduced hours of work. falls in employment are greatest among youngest and oldest workers, along with those in lower-skilled jobs.

While number of people on payroll has fallen to 28.27 million since start of pandemic, country's official unemployment rate is t rising, holding stey in June at 3.9%. To be counted among unemployed, workers need to be actively looking for a new job, which many have decided t to do yet.

Britain has been partly spared sharp rises in unemployment seen in United States, for example, because of government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which pays majority of salaries of workers who have t been fired. Some 1.2 million employers have taken vant of program to furlough 9.6 million people at a cost to government of 33.8 billion pounds ($44 billion).

Though se workers have t been working over past few months, y are t counted as unemployed. But government is phasing program out and will bring it to an end in October, arguing that it gives “false hope” to furloughed workers while at same time limiting ir prospects of getting new jobs as ir skills fe. Inste, government is pinning its hopes on reopening of ecomy and that re is second coronavirus spike.

“A wide range of indicators suggest that job losses will crystallize from August, when employers must start to cover some of costs of furloughed staff,” said Samuel Tombs, chief U.K. ecomist at Panon Macroecomics.

He ted that surveys of employment intentions are “at least as weak” as y were at worst point of global financial crisis in 2008-9.