Younger people are continuing to bear the brunt of the jobs crisis amid widespread cuts in sectors such as hospitality, official figures have shown
In the year leading up to March, 811,000 payroll jobs had been lost in the UK, with those under the age of 35 accounting for 80% of these job cuts.
The data has also showed that the unemployment rate in the UK dipped to 4.9% in the three months that lead up to February, which down from the previous rate of 5%.
This was despite most of the United Kingdom being under strict coronavirus lockdown rules for at least some of the time period.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobs market “remains subdued”, with five million people employed but still on furlough.
This comes after the role of a Conservative Party donor in a £100m government deal to buy PPE has been revealed following an reported admin error. Samir Jassal is an ex-councillor who has both campaigned with the PM and donated money to the Conservative Party.
Head of economics at the British Chambers of Commerce, Suren Thiru, said:
“Unemployment remains on course to peak towards the end of 2021, once the furlough scheme expires and those who stopped job hunting during the pandemic look to return to the workforce as restrictions ease.
“Although the furlough scheme will limit the peak in job losses, the longer-term structural unemployment caused by Covid-19, particularly among young people, may mean that the road back to pre-pandemic levels lags behind the wider economic recovery.”
Overall, some 1.67 million people in the UK were unemployed between the months of December and February. That is down 50,000 from the previous quarter but is still 311,000 higher than it was a year ago.
But the ONS has said that younger people were suffering from job losses disproportionately, as sectors such as hospitality and retail were hit hard by the crisis.
Following a few months of increases, there was a small monthly decrease in the number of payrolled employees in March 2021. The largest monthly falls were seen at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the year, the largest falls in payrolled employment have been in the hospitality sector, among those aged under 25 years, and among those living in London.
According to the ONS, people who were aged under 35 accounted for 635,000 payroll jobs lost in the year leading up to March, with 436,000 of those positions being held by people under the age of 25.
This comes after the prime minister has faced repeated quizzing from MPs about the lobbying row that has engulfed David Cameron, his Prime Ministerial predecessor, and has also dragged in some former and current ministers and government officials.
Gerwyn Davies, who is a senior policy adviser at the Chartered Institute of Professional Development, said that the number of young people within employment had fallen to a “post-pandemic low”.
“This reinforces the urgent case for apprenticeship incentives to be made more generous and targeted specifically at 18-24 year-olds. It also underlines the need to improve employers’ awareness of traineeships and the Kickstart [work placement] Scheme.”
