This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
REDUNDANCIES in Britain hit a record high in the three-month period to September this year, new figures revealed today.
Around 314,000 redundancies were registered between July and September — higher than any other point on record, including the financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath — which is an increase of 181,000 redundancies to the previous quarter, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Since the pandemic struck in March, around 782,000 people have been made redundant, according to the ONS.
Unemployment in the UK reached 4.8 per cent between July and September — equating to around 1.62 million people unemployed — while British Chambers of Commerce head of economics Suren Thiru warned that “another wave” of job losses was in the pipeline due to firms’ “severely diminished cashflow and revenue, and gaps in government support persisting.”
The Johnson government was forced into another U-turn at the beginning of this month and extended its furlough scheme until March next year as England went into its second lockdown.
Many have criticised the delay in the U-turn, with Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s head of economics Dave Innes warning that the “11-hour decision” on its last day on October 31 would have already cost jobs.
The new figures prompted TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady to call on the government to use the November 25 spending review to focus on the creation of new jobs. Research had shown that “1.2 million new jobs could be created in the next two years in green transport and infrastructure, and another 600,000 by unlocking public-sector vacancies.”
Ms O’Grady said: “It’s time to stop the government’s economic roller coaster. Every day more job losses are announced — and every one is a tragedy for a family.”
She also raised the concerns of self-employed workers in the arts sector who have been excluded from the Self-employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) while out of work due to the pandemic.
“Hard-hit sectors like the arts, hospitality and aviation are really struggling. These industries have a long-term future — but ministers must step in and deliver targeted support to help them get through the months ahead.
“People who have lost their jobs must get the support they need to make ends meet. We need an urgent boost to universal credit or many risk being plunged into poverty.”
Labour shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds said that the government was to blame for the jobs crisis due to ministers’ “last-minute changes and bluster.”
He called for Chancellor Rishi Sunak to help “get Britain back to work,” including through “a green recovery” which could potentially create “hundreds of thousands of low-carbon jobs.”
Think tank Resolution Foundation pointed out that most workers who have been made redundant during the pandemic were aged between 18 and 24, in insecure work, and were the lowest-paid.
Scottish TUC general secretary Roz Foyer said a continued fall in youth employment in Scotland was a “deeply worrying trend.”
She added that despite the STUC welcoming the Scottish government’s Youth Guarantee, it was calling for a more “comprehensive fully funded Jobs Guarantee Scheme across the whole of the UK as advocated by the Alliance for Full Employment.”
