The under 25s have been the hit the hardest as the latest figures on unemployment released this morning.
The figures suggest that the furlough scheme has put the labour market on hold but those under 25 make up 63% of those who’ve dropped off the payroll since Feb 2020.
While the number of people looking for work stable is stable at 1.7 million, the numbers claiming benefits in some way are up to 2.7 million
The UK unemployment rate, in the three months to January 2021, was estimated at 5.0%, 1.1 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 0.1 percentage points higher than the previous quarter.
Since February 2020, the number of payroll employees has fallen by 693,000 with the largest falls seen at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The number of job vacancies in December 2020 to February 2021 was 26.8% lower than a year ago.
This is an improvement on the position in summer 2020 when vacancies were down by nearly 60% year on year, but the rate of improvement has slowed in the past few months.
Further restrictions and national lockdowns recently have had an impact on vacancies in some industries more than others, most notably the accommodation and food services industry.
Matthew Percival, CBI People & Skills Director, said:
“Clear evidence about the impact of the pandemic on young people over the past year reinforces the need to extend the deadline for the Kickstart scheme for another six months.
“With approximately 5million people still on furlough the Chancellor’s move to extend and taper the scheme will help support many jobs as the roadmap for reopening gets underway.
“Continuing good progress on the vaccine rollout, combined with accelerating workplace testing, will help ensure the UK is best-placed to recover in the second half of this year.”
