Unemployment falls to 4.8% as jobs market shows signs of recovery
THE jobs market has shown early signs of recovery as unemployment fell to 4.8% between January to March this year.
The fall came even though England was in its third national lockdown due to the Covid crisis.
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It marked a drop compared to the 4.9% rate recorded in the three months to the end of February, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.
It is also the largest quarterly decrease since September to November 2015.
The UK's employment rate increased for the first time since December 2019 to February 2020 as well by 0.2%.
The ONS said this showed the early "signs of recovery" for the UK jobs market.
Separate figures showed the number of Brits on company payrolls jumped by 97,000 from April to March.
It came as companies adjusted to Covid restrictions easing under the first step of Boris Johnson's roadmap out of lockdown.
But it means there are still 772,000 less workers on company payrolls than before the pandemic struck in February last year.
Meanwhile, job vacancies hit their highest level in more than 12 months, as companies looked to ramp up hiring as Covid rules started to ease.
Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: "The renewed lockdown at the beginning of 2021 saw a sharp rise in the number of previously unemployed people no longer looking for work, helping the unemployment rate to fall on the quarter.
"This mirrored what happened during the first lockdown."
Commenting on the figures, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: "While sadly not every job can be saved, nearly 2 million fewer people are now expected to be out of work than initially expected - showing our Plan for Jobs is working.
"Thousands of young people are finding work through our Kickstart scheme, and the extension of the furlough and self-employed support schemes beyond the end of the road map means people's jobs will continue to be protected while the economy gradually reopens."
But while the government continues to pay the bulk of wages for millions of workers during the pandemic, some experts predict that unemployment rates could drop once this help is removed.
Capital Economics analyst Thomas Pugh said the slight fall in the unemployment rate "suggests that the government's job furlough scheme is still insulating the labour market from the worst effects of the pandemic".
Poverty charity Joseph Rowntree Foundation senior economist Rebecca McDonald said workers on low pay and less secure contracts have been most likely to lose their jobs so far.
She added: "We need to keep a close eye on the fact that three quarters of a million people have been unemployed for more than 6 months, given how damaging a long period out of work can be for workers’ job prospects and their families’ living standards."
Last month, it was revealed that around 813,000 jobs have been lost since the start of the pandemic.
The total number of workers who didn't have a job stood at 1.67million.
But major employers have announced plans to hire thousands of workers this year.
Amazon announced last week it is going to create more than 10,000 jobs in the UK, which will take its total workforce in the country to more than 55,000.
BT also announced it would be creating up to 7,000 new jobs to help roll out speedier internet across millions of homes.
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In April, a flurry of jobs became available as the economy bounced back with lockdown restrictions easing.
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