Impact of crisis becomes clear

The government’s economic response to the COVID-19 crisis changed once again, on 22 October, barely a week before the end of the original furlough scheme.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced changes to the Job Support Scheme (which takes over from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme — see page 19) and increased grants for some self-employed workers.

With almost daily changes in policy, it was difficult to see exactly what the predicted “tsunami” of job losses will look like statistically, but at a human level the economic impact is already clear.

UK financial regulatory body the Financial Conduct Authority reports that since February, two million more adults (making 12 million in all) are now struggling with bills or loan repayments.

Since March 2020, the number of payroll employees has fallen by 673,000, but the larger falls were seen at the start of the pandemic.

The employment rate has been decreasing while the unemployment rate and the level of redundancies have been increasing. But — as it stood — total hours worked showed signs of recovering (as did vacancies), with fewer people temporarily away from work.

Average weekly earnings growth was back into positive numbers, after the shrinking in April, May and June.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-can-claim-the-job-support-scheme

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-highlights-continued-support-consumers-struggling-payments

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment