Unemployment in the UK hit a 10-year high
China News Agency, London, August 12 (Gao Tianyin, Zhang Ping) – the UK’s National Bureau of statistics released the latest data on the 11th, with the impact of the new coronavirus epidemic, the number of unemployed people in the UK has reached a 10-year record since March. The number of unemployed people in the UK has reached 730000, the highest since the financial crisis in 2009, according to the data. Among them, the number of unemployed increased by 74000 in June and 114000 in July. In order to stabilize employment, at the beginning of the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the British government implemented the “vacation fund subsidy scheme”, and a large number of employees who stayed at home for “vacation” were still classified as having jobs. Under the scheme, the government will pay 80% of the wages of some 8.4m UK employees, up to 2500 a month. The original plan lasted until the end of July. On May 12, British Chancellor of the exchequer, rich sunak, announced that the plan would be extended to October this year. Ruth Gregory, a British economist, said it was still “calm before the storm” and that once the scheme ended in October, the more severe unemployment situation would be fully revealed. (end)
