UK furlough scheme could just delay massive unemployment rise | Larry Elliott
by Larry Elliott from on (#52ENZ)
According to one analysis, 5 million more Britons could be jobless by the end of May due to coronavirus
Unemployment up a tad to 4%. Job vacancies and pay growth down a fraction. Britain's latest official labour market figures are a bit like the Domesday Book: comprehensive and rich in detail but of historical interest only.
The contrast between the US and the UK is stark. On the other side of the Atlantic economists can already have a reasonably good shot at estimating the impact of Covid-19 on unemployment because there are weekly updates on the number of people filing jobless claims. In the past four weeks, these have totalled 22 million.
Related: Rishi Sunak's furlough support scheme fails to reassure Britons
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