Redundancies in the UK have soured in the last three months. Economists have warned the nation that the worst is yet to come. Anika Khan reports.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the months of July to September have witnessed around 314,000 registered redundancies in Britain. Unemployment in the UK reached 4.8 percent in these three months alone equating to over 1.65 million people losing their job.
The British Chambers of Commerce head of economics, Suren Thiru has warned that the second wave of job loss is going to hit very soon. He blamed the, “severely diminished cash flow and revenue, and gaps in government support persisting” behind this.
Earlier this month, Tories government made a U-turn in their decision and extended the furlough scheme to continue till March of 2021 as the UK went into a second national lockdown. The delay in this decision by PM Boris has cost hundreds of jobs.
TUC general secretary, Frances O’ Grady proposed the government to use November 25 spending review and focus on creating new employment opportunities. She pointed out how the government was capable of creating over 1.2 million new jobs in the next two years with the budget in green transport and infrastructure development sectors. Frances said, “every day more job losses are announced — and everyone is a tragedy for a family.”
Frances also pointed out the sectors that have been excluded from the Self- employed Income Support Scheme such as the arts, hospitability, and aviation sectors that have been thriving during this pandemic.
She asked the ministers to step “in and deliver targeted support to help them get through the months ahead.” She also proposed to urgently boost universal credit to support the people who have lost their jobs. Pension Secretary Jonathan Reynolds blamed the government for the Job crisis that the UK is facing right now.
The only hope it seems is to create hundreds of low carbon jobs through a green recovery.
