Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Unemployment stats: Figures belie scale of challenge ahead

Reacting to figures released yesterday showing that UK's unemployment rate dropped to 4.7% in Q2 2021 (a decrease of 0.2% on the quarter before), Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Christine Jardine MP said:

“These figures don’t give us a real picture of what is going on in our economy or the scale of the challenge ahead. 
 
"The Government needs to listen to the businesses in the hospitality sector who cannot open up fully because staff were forced to move on during the lockdown. Or the countless small businesses who say they’re months away from closing. And the parents worried how they will feed their children and pay their bills if they lose their job when furlough ends next month.
 
“What the country needs is a long-term strategy to support jobs and businesses into the winter. And the Chancellor must start by extending the furlough scheme into next year to avoid a devastating jobs cliff-edge next month.”

1 comment:

Frank Little said...

UK broadcasters, clearly reliant on official handouts, compare the latest figures over too short a time period. Employment figures are still not as good as they were a year ago and certainly not as good as they were pre-Brexit. In the long term, Brexit - and Johnson's mishandling of it - will be seen to be more significant than the effects of the pandemic.