UK Unemployment Rate Hits Highest Level in 5 Years Due to COVID-19 Impact

On the 25th of last month (local time), Boris Johnson (center), the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was moving a box containing COVID-19 vaccines at a COVID-19 vaccination center set up at Barnet FC's home stadium, 'The Hive,' located north of London.
[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The unemployment rate in the United Kingdom has reached its highest level in five years amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced on the 23rd (local time) that the unemployment rate for the fourth quarter of last year (October to December) was recorded at 5.1%. This is 1.3 percentage points higher than the same period the previous year and 0.4 percentage points higher than the third quarter (July to September). The quarterly unemployment rate in the UK has not been this high since the first quarter of 2016, when it was 5.1%. By gender, the rate was 5.4% for men and 4.8% for women.

ONS explained that "the unemployment rate showed the largest annual increase since the financial crisis," but also noted that people who lost their jobs at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic have started to regain employment.

The UK defines the unemployment rate as the proportion of unemployed persons within the economically active population. Here, unemployed persons refer to those who have actively sought work in the past four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks.

Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in a statement released that day, "We know how difficult the past year has been for everyone," adding, "Losing a job is a personal tragedy."

BBC reported that the UK government is expected to include an extension of job support for sectors hardest hit by lockdown measures in the budget to be announced on the 3rd of next month.