The unemployment rate fell unexpectedly to 4.8% in the first 3 months of the year - that’s 0.1% lower than it was at the end of 2020. The data comes from the Office for National Statistics and suggests the jobs market held its own during the latest lockdown, supported by the furlough scheme. There are still 772,000 fewer people on payrolls than in February 2021, but hiring picked up again in April.
In more good news for job hunters, vacancies have hit their highest level since the start of the pandemic. There were 657,000 vacancies between February and April, and the hiring spree seems set to continue as businesses reopen after lockdown. These official figures confirm what we’ve been hearing from job sites and recruiters over the past few weeks.
It could take a year for the government to decide whether key workers with long Covid should get compensation. 65 MPs and peers want it to be recognised as an “occupational disease” as many caught it at work. More than a million people in the UK, including 120,000 healthcare workers, have long Covid symptoms and many of them are unable to work.
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