The worst-hit places in the UK for unemployment since the Covid pandemic began have now been revealed.
The Institute for Employment Studies said many of the areas worst hit by the rise in unemployment were in the North West of England. In Blackpool, 11% are now “claimant unemployed”, up from 7% in March.
Elsewhere, one in 11 residents are claimant unemployed in Middlesbrough, South Tyneside, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Thanet, Kent, reports the Mirror.
Some 856,500 people signed up for Universal Credit and Jobseeker’s Allowance in April, driving up overall claims by 69% in a month, the Office for National Statistics said.
It took the total jobless figure above two million for the first time since 1996.
And the rate of increase was the fastest since comparable records began in the 1970s.
Areas which were already among the worst off suffered most, the Institute for Employment Studies said.
Torsten Bell, chief executive of living standards think-tank the Resolution Foundation said it showed “Britain’s jobs crisis has now arrived”.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak a House of Lords Treasury Committee via videolink “the jury is out” on what the economy will look like after the crisis.
“I certainly won’t be able to protect every job and every business,” he said.
“We’re seeing [it] in the data and no doubt there will be more hardship to come. We are likely to face a severe recession the likes of which we have not seen.”
