'Corona Shock' UK Unemployment Rate 5.0%... Highest in 5 Years

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] From September to November last year, the unemployment rate in the United Kingdom reached 5.0%, marking the highest level in five years since early 2016.

According to BBC and MarketWatch on the 26th, the UK Office for National Statistics stated that the unemployment rate rose due to the renewed spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which continued to burden the economy. The market expectation was 5.1%.

The statistics office reported that based on the business employee register, the number of employed people in December decreased by 2.7% compared to the same month last year. This figure was 828,000 below the level of February, when COVID-19 began to spread in earnest. The number of employed people from September to November decreased by 88,000, slightly less than the market expectation of a 100,000 decrease.

Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, said that the actual unemployment rate is higher than the statistics because people who temporarily postponed job searching due to COVID-19 were excluded.

As COVID-19 cases surged and variants spread, the UK government implemented a new lockdown on the 5th. The cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in the UK reached 3,681,01 as of 6:30 PM (Korean time) on the 26th.