Claims for jobless benefits went up by 529,000 across Britain last month, taking the total claimant count to 2.8 million, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday, adding that the figure for April was revised up to more than one million.
The numbers were registered at the height of the lockdown measures, which have been in place all over the country since 23 March in a bid to curb the spread of the highly contagious COVID-19 disease. The headline rate for unemployment lingered at 3.9% in the three months through April, when the number for April alone rose by 429,000, ONS said, with a large share of Brits rendered economically inactive.
Data from last week showed the economy shrank by a fifth in April, with the government now proceeding to usher in the next stage of the lockdown easing, allowing non-essential stores in England to reopen on Monday, with UK policymakers expected to announce a further expansion of their asset-purchase programme.
Comment: Douglas Murray: The high price Jordan Peterson has paid for telling the truth