Unemployment increased by 50,000 to 1.35 million in the three months to March, official figures showed.
Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for economic statistics at the ONS, said of the latest unemployment figure: “While only covering the first weeks of restrictions, our figures show Covid-19 is having a major impact on the labour market.
“In March employment held up well, as furloughed workers still count as employed, but hours worked fell sharply in late March, especially in sectors such as hospitality and construction.
“Through April, though, there were signs of falling employment as real-time tax data show the number of employees on companies’ payrolls fell noticeably, and vacancies were sharply down too, with hospitality again falling steepest.”
It also announced that early estimates for April 2020 indicate that the number of paid employees fell by 1.6% compared to March, as firms began to feel a greater impact from the lockdown.
Economist Sir Christopher Pissarides warned hours of work figures “fell catastrophically” while vacancies figures showed the labour market “more or less stopped functioning”.
The London School of Economic academic told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme employment figures are “not as bad”, but added: “Hours of work figures fell catastrophically.
“And also vacancies fell which shows the labour market more or less stopped functioning at the beginning of the lockdown.”
