LONDON: Britain's unemployment rate dipped to 4.7 percent in the three month to the end of April as the UK economy began to emerge from its lockdown, official data showed Tuesday. Unemployment eased from a rate of 4.8 percent in the first quarter, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.
The jobs markets is being helped also by the government's furlough scheme paying the bulk of wages for millions of private-sector workers. In May, "the number of employees on payroll grew strongly...., up by almost 200,000, although it is still over half a million down since the pandemic struck", noted Sam Beckett, ONS head of economic statistics.
Data showed more employers were seeking to hire, with strong growth in job offers in sectors such as hospitality as coronavirus lockdown measures began to be eased. The UK reopened non-essential retail, including restaurants and bars, in April, allowing the wider British economy to recover further from pandemic fallout.
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