UK unemployment has risen by the biggest amount in over ten years.
Despite the furlough scheme still in place in the UK, in the last three months, the Office for National Statistics revealed a 220,000 fall of workers compared to the previous quarter.
The decline is the largest since the financial crisis in 2009.
“The groups of people most affected are younger workers, 24 and under, or older workers and those in more routine or less skilled jobs.This is concerning, as it’s harder for these groups to find a new job or get into a job as easily as other workers,” said Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician at the ONS.
Although the numbers may have peaked over the past three months, fears are increasing as October approaches and the government furlough scheme will come to an end.
“Unfortunately, the end of the furlough scheme will present a cliff-edge, statistically and economically, for those currently relying on government support to make up their wages,” said Jeremy Thomson-Cook, chief economist at Equals Money.
“Longer-term government stimulus to create jobs is needed to ensure the gap between the end of the furlough scheme and a rise in employment is not larger than it needs to be,” he added.
The Bank of England predicted last week that the unemployment rate would rise to 7.9% at the end of the year.
The number of large companies announcing wide-scale redundancy plans this year has hit highs since the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. In the month of June, 140,000 UK were lost.
