The UK s unemployment rate has reached 5% for the first time since 2016 THE UK s unemployment rate has soared to its highest level for more than four years as official figures showed nearly 830,000 workers have been dropped from payrolls since the start of the pandemic. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the unemployment rate reached 5% in the three months to November for the first time since early 2016 after another 202,000 people lost their jobs. Figures for December also showed there were 828,000 fewer people on company payrolls since before the crisis struck last February as the pandemic has hammered the jobs market. Experts warned that there would be further pain to come after the latest lockdown rips through the labour market.
Unemployment hits 5-year high as 828,000 jobs lost during pandemic
Experts have warned there is more hardship to come
828,000 jobs were lost since the start of the pandemic. (Image: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)
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UK experiencing highest rate of unemployment in more than four years The Job Retention Scheme needs to run to at least the end of June to avoid a cliff-edge (Image: PA)
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Andrew Bailey faces another tough year at Bank of England in 2021
Andrew Bailey faces another tough year at Bank of England in 2021, with little time to recover from a chaotic 2020 (Getty Images)
Mark Carney must be thanking the gods he stepped down as Bank of England governor in early March.
Since then, his successor Andrew Bailey has had to steer the historic institution through the worst economic downturn in 300 years, complete with a bout of market panic in the spring.
Under Bailey’s leadership the Bank slashed interest rates to 0.1 per cent – their lowest level in history. And it has beefed up its bond-buying package to an unprecedented £895bn.