Continued disruption to labour market

Commenting on this morning’s UK labour market data, Melanie Baker, senior economist at Royal London Asset Management said:

“Although this was a better than expected labour market report, there was nevertheless some worsening in the unemployment rate and the data continues to highlight the depth of disruption to the labour market during this crisis. Total hours worked, for example, are still nearly 9% below pre-crisis levels.

"Under current economic conditions, there remains a risk that a sizeable proportion of those being made redundant struggle to find suitable work, that skills atrophy and that some leave the workforce altogether for a prolonged period.

“Policy support remains important, with some distance to travel before vaccines allow activity to return to more normal levels.”

-ENDS-