A worker walks through Stirling city centre in Scotland. UK finance minister Rishi Sunak said the government has provided more than £280bn in support for jobs and businesses since the start of the crisis. Getty Images
A worker walks through Stirling city centre in Scotland. UK finance minister Rishi Sunak said the government has provided more than £280bn in support for jobs and businesses since the start of the crisis. Getty Images
A worker walks through Stirling city centre in Scotland. UK finance minister Rishi Sunak said the government has provided more than £280bn in support for jobs and businesses since the start of the crisis. Getty Images
A worker walks through Stirling city centre in Scotland. UK finance minister Rishi Sunak said the government has provided more than £280bn in support for jobs and businesses since the start of the cri

UK unemployment rate rises to 4.9% as redundancies hit record high


Alice Haine
  • English
  • Arabic

Britain’s unemployment rate rose to 4.9 per cent in three months to October and redundancies hit a record high as companies were hit by a fresh round of coronavirus restrictions.

The number of people out of work rose to 1.69 million – the highest level in more than four years – from 1.62 million, or 4.8 per cent of the workforce, in September. While redundancies reached a new high, the rate decreased in October itself, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

UK finance minister Rishi Sunak said the government has provided more than £280 billion ($374bn) in support since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, protected nine million jobs through the furlough scheme and supported millions of businesses through loans, grants and tax cuts.

"But we know that, sadly, many people are already facing unemployment,” he said in statement on Tuesday.

The government was forced to extend its job subsidies furlough scheme beyond the original October 31 deadline after the number of coronavirus cases began to escalate and new curbs were imposed on regions across the country.

Matthew Percival, the director of people and skills at the Confederation of British Industry, said the “bleak” figures for October show households were being hit hard even ahead of England’s second national lockdown.

“While news of a vaccine has provided hope, many firms are still finding it difficult to operate within the toughest Covid restrictions,” he said.

“With millions more expected to be living under the toughest tier before the end of the week, the government must continue to do what it can to help businesses get through winter.”

Britain's economy, which was hammered by the first lockdown – contracting 19.8 per cent in the second quarter – now faces the risk of further shock from the end of its post-Brexit transition period on December 31.

The Bank of England has forecast that the unemployment rate is likely to peak at almost 8 per cent in the second quarter of 2021.

However, Ruth Gregory, senior UK economist at Capital Economics, expects the figure to top out at 7 per cent on the back of the vaccine and drop down to 4 per cent by 2023.

Hospitality was the worst hit sector in October, accounting for a third of the job losses, followed by retail, according to the ONS.

The November data is unlikely to be positive either, as bars and restaurants in England were closed during the second lockdown, and thousands based in areas covered by Tier 3 rules remain closed.

Tax office figures, which show the number of staff on company payrolls, slipped by a monthly 28,000 in November, taking the total number of job losses since February to 819,000, with a third of those in hospitality.

Job vacancies rose to 547,000 in the three months to November, about 60 per cent higher than during the depths of the pandemic slump, but down by about a third from a year earlier.

Arcadia fashion group fell into administration last month putting more than 13,000 jobs at risk, while retail chain Debenhams is closing all its stores, jeopardising 12,000 jobs.

While the extension of the furlough scheme will offer a lifeline for many jobs over the winter, Ms Gregory said the vaccine “won’t come soon enough to hold back the tide of job losses in the coming months", because restrictions remain in place and the government will withdraw its support for the labour market.

On a more positive note, however, the rate of average earnings growth rose to 2.7 per cent in the three months ended October 31, from 1.4 per cent in September.

“This partly reflects those workers who came off the furlough scheme and kept their jobs going from receiving 80 per cent of their salaries on the furlough to 100 per cent,” said Ms Gregory.

The biog

Family: wife, four children, 11 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren

Reads: Newspapers, historical, religious books and biographies

Education: High school in Thatta, a city now in Pakistan

Regrets: Not completing college in Karachi when universities were shut down following protests by freedom fighters for the British to quit India 

 

Happiness: Work on creative ideas, you will also need ideals to make people happy

The bio:

Favourite film:

Declan: It was The Commitments but now it’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

Heidi: The Long Kiss Goodnight.

Favourite holiday destination:

Declan: Las Vegas but I also love getting home to Ireland and seeing everyone back home.

Heidi: Australia but my dream destination would be to go to Cuba.

Favourite pastime:

Declan: I love brunching and socializing. Just basically having the craic.

Heidi: Paddleboarding and swimming.

Personal motto:

Declan: Take chances.

Heidi: Live, love, laugh and have no regrets.

 

TOURNAMENT INFO

Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier

Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November

UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi

UK-EU trade at a glance

EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years

Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products

Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries

Smoother border management with use of e-gates

Cutting red tape on import and export of food

Structural%20weaknesses%20facing%20Israel%20economy
%3Cp%3E1.%20Labour%20productivity%20is%20lower%20than%20the%20average%20of%20the%20developed%20economies%2C%20particularly%20in%20the%20non-tradable%20industries.%3Cbr%3E2.%20The%20low%20level%20of%20basic%20skills%20among%20workers%20and%20the%20high%20level%20of%20inequality%20between%20those%20with%20various%20skills.%3Cbr%3E3.%20Low%20employment%20rates%2C%20particularly%20among%20Arab%20women%20and%20Ultra-Othodox%20Jewish%20men.%3Cbr%3E4.%20A%20lack%20of%20basic%20knowledge%20required%20for%20integration%20into%20the%20labour%20force%2C%20due%20to%20the%20lack%20of%20core%20curriculum%20studies%20in%20schools%20for%20Ultra-Othodox%20Jews.%3Cbr%3E5.%20A%20need%20to%20upgrade%20and%20expand%20physical%20infrastructure%2C%20particularly%20mass%20transit%20infrastructure.%3Cbr%3E6.%20The%20poverty%20rate%20at%20more%20than%20double%20the%20OECD%20average.%3Cbr%3E7.%20Population%20growth%20of%20about%202%20per%20cent%20per%20year%2C%20compared%20to%200.6%20per%20cent%20OECD%20average%20posing%20challenge%20for%20fiscal%20policy%20and%20underpinning%20pressure%20on%20education%2C%20health%20care%2C%20welfare%20housing%20and%20physical%20infrastructure%2C%20which%20will%20increase%20in%20the%20coming%20years.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-AMG C63 S Cabriolet

Price, base: Dh429,090

Engine 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8

Transmission Seven-speed automatic

Power 510hp @ 5,500rpm

Torque 700Nm @ 1,750rpm

Fuel economy, combined 9.2L / 100km

The biog

Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi

Age: 23

How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them

Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need

Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman

Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs 

Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing

Greatest Royal Rumble results

John Cena pinned Triple H in a singles match

Cedric Alexander retained the WWE Cruiserweight title against Kalisto

Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt win the Raw Tag Team titles against Cesaro and Sheamus

Jeff Hardy retained the United States title against Jinder Mahal

Bludgeon Brothers retain the SmackDown Tag Team titles against the Usos

Seth Rollins retains the Intercontinental title against The Miz, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe

AJ Styles remains WWE World Heavyweight champion after he and Shinsuke Nakamura are both counted out

The Undertaker beats Rusev in a casket match

Brock Lesnar retains the WWE Universal title against Roman Reigns in a steel cage match

Braun Strowman won the 50-man Royal Rumble by eliminating Big Cass last

'Operation Mincemeat' 

Director: John Madden 

 

Cast: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfayden, Kelly Macdonald and Penelope Wilton

 

Rating: 4/5

 
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In numbers: China in Dubai

The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000

Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000

Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent

Company profile

Name: Fruitful Day

Founders: Marie-Christine Luijckx, Lyla Dalal AlRawi, Lindsey Fournie

Based: Dubai, UAE

Founded: 2015

Number of employees: 30

Sector: F&B

Funding so far: Dh3 million

Future funding plans: None at present

Future markets: Saudi Arabia, potentially Kuwait and other GCC countries

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Diriyah%20project%20at%20a%20glance
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SUZUME
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