New findings by YouGov suggest that 1 in 20 Britons has already lost their job due to the outbreak of Coronavirus, with a further 9% saying they’ve had their hours and or pay reduced. If correct, this would translate to a new UK unemployment rate of 7% – more than two million people…

Whilst in ordinary circumstances the figure would be worrying, the Government may be breathing a small sigh of relief at this stage when comparing to other countries:

• Norway’s unemployment rate has gone up 8.6% since the end of February – taking the country’s out of work rate to its highest level since the 1930s.
• In the US, the Treasury secretary has supposedly told Republican senators unemployment could rise to 20% – double that seen during the great depression; with the Federal Reserve’s Bank of St. Louis predicting 30%.

Britain won’t know for a while how well Rishi’s furlough plea kept unemployment from shooting up, though the last statistics from the ONS on 17th March show employment only rose by 0.2% – despite the UK already being in the midst of the pandemic. The country waits with bated breath for the next official figures…