Figures just released from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), show a rise in the unemployment rate, with 80,000 more unemployed in the last month but still slightly lower than the anticipated 4.2% economists had pencilled in.  Sadly however, this is only a stepping stage to a much higher figure. There are currently 7.5 million staff on furlough and many companies who have had to take this emergency route to stay alive, may well be restructuring the business and putting the process in place to make large amounts of workers redundant in the next month or so.

The UK payroll is currently down 730,000 compared to March this year and over all, the decrease in employment is the largest in over ten years. This may well be eclipsed in the next few months.

End of 2020 unemployment forecasting is going to be very difficult as furloughing winds down but initial surveys suggest an end of year figure of somewhere between 9-11% , though double the current figure at a stable sub 8%, may well be seen as positive, though not if you are one of the workers making up this number of course.