Over 900,000 small businesses are at risk of shutting up shop for good amid a fresh wave of job losses threatening to sweep across Britain, according to new research.
The grim findings suggest 2.5million jobs up and down the country are at risk of being lost in the coming months.
A marked increase in bankruptcies among British businesses looms as Government support programmes like the furlough scheme end, the Centre for Economic Performance and the Alliance for Full Employment warned.
Around one in seven, or 15 per cent, of UK-based firms are at risk of imminent collapse as enforced temporary closures and lockdown restrictions persist.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in Thurrock at the end of last year was more than double that seen at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, figures reveal. Office for National Statistics data shows 7,630 people were claiming out-of-work benefits as of December 10, compared to just 3,610 in early March – an increase of 4,020. That is 7% of the area s working-age population, up from 3.3%. The figures include those aged 16 to 64 on Jobseeker’s Allowance and some Universal Credit claimants, who are unemployed and seeking work or employed but with low earnings. In December 2019, there were 3,285 claimants in Thurrock. Those on benefits at the end of 2020 were among roughly 205,000 across the East of England.
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1.72 million people were out of work between September and November 2020, the ONS said
Tom Higgins
The number of unemployed people in the UK has continued to rise, according to the Office for National Statistics, and is now at the highest level in five years, as industry commentators warn it could climb higher still.
Between September and November 2020, the estimated UK unemployment rate was 5%, 1.2% higher than a year earlier and 0.6% higher than the previous quarter, rising by 202,000 in the three months. The.
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It is mad to be concerned about levels of government debt when so many people’s livelihoods and wellbeing are at stake
A study backed by former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown reckons that within months at least one in 10 workers (about four million people) will be without work. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
A study backed by former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown reckons that within months at least one in 10 workers (about four million people) will be without work. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
Mon 25 Jan 2021 14.07 EST
Last modified on Tue 26 Jan 2021 09.55 EST