A man wearing a face mask walks past a refurbished shop in London, Britain, on Oct. 13, 2020. The British unemployment rate surged to a three-year high at 4.5 percent from June to August 2020 as the country's labor market continued to be hit significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is expected to render more people jobless in winter, the British Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Tuesday. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
LONDON, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- The British unemployment rate surged to a three-year high at 4.5 percent from June to August 2020 as the country's labor market continued to be hit significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is expected to render more people jobless in winter, the British Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Tuesday.
An estimated 1.52 million people were unemployed in the three months, 209,000 more than a year earlier and 138,000 more than the previous quarter, figures showed.
"The fallout in the labour market from the COVID-19 recession has been worse than previously thought," said Paul Dales, an economist at the Capital Economics UK, an economic research consultancy based in London.
Meanwhile in September, the Claimant Count level, an experimental statistic that seeks to measure the number of people claiming benefit principally for the reason of being unemployed, increased to 2.7 million, marking an increase of 120.3 percent, or 1.5 million, since March 2020, the ONS said.
The latest figures were released as the British government prepares to impose tough local lockdown rules that will force some businesses to close, potentially leading to more job losses.
Analysts thought that job market will face increasingly challenging months ahead as the British government has imposed further tough restrictions to tackle the rising resurgence of pandemic in the country.
"With new COVID-19 restrictions across the UK, there can be little doubt that challenges facing the jobs market are mounting," said James Smith, a developed markets economist at financial services firm ING.
Smith predicted that the unemployment rate is likely to rise "towards 9-10 percent over the winter" when taking all factors into consideration.
"This will put additional pressure on the Bank of England to add stimulus, and we expect another round of QE (Quantitative easing) at the November meeting," Smith added.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday announced a new three-level COVID-19 alert system that will be implemented across England, saying there are now more patients in hospitals with the virus than there were when the first wave of lockdown measures were brought in on March 23.
The announcement came at a time when Britain, China, Russia and the United States are racing against time to develop coronavirus vaccines to check the spread of the virus in the world.
"With the latest COVID-19 restrictions threatening to stall the economic recovery, if not send it into reverse, the unemployment rate may yet climb to almost 8 percent next year," Dales added. Enditem
