Unemployment Highest for Youth and Minority Groups

As the government support scheme ends, a new report reveals the hardest-hit group with the highest rate of unemployment.

A survey conducted by The Resolution Foundation studied about 6,000 adults. The survey found that 19% of adults in the age range 18-24 years old were still unemployed in September. The same proportion of people were moved from furlough to joblessness during the lockdown period.

The same survey also reveals that one in five ethnic minority workers and young people have lost their jobs and are unemployed. In numbers that 22% of black, Asian, and ethnic workers are jobless compared to a 9% rate for the general population.

The Treasury believes that its wage support schemes had helped millions retain their jobs. It initially covered up to 80% of a worker's wages. Chancellor Rishi Sunak heralded the furlough scheme as more than half of the 8.9 million people in the program had returned to work by summertime.

The job retention scheme is running on a multibillion-pound wage subsidy program that is due to end next week. Official numbers state that almost one in 10 of the workers are still on furlough. That is more than 2 million people whose support will end next week. However, more companies are expressing their inability to retain employees and will also be conducting redundancies in the coming months.

The replacement program developed by Chancellor Sunak is said to be less generous.

The Resolution Foundation president and former government minister Lord Willetts spoke to BBC Today and commented on the grim findings of their company.

"Compared with previous recessions, the real slowdown is in the number of new jobs that people are moving into," he said.

"Once you become unemployed, finding new employment looks like it's even worse than it was after the financial crash."

In their report, only 43% of people who lost their jobs since March have found new work by September. For young people, only 33% per cent have found work again. The survey revealed that the hardest-hit sectors of the economy are in hospitality, leisure, and retail.

Kathleen Henehan, a senior research and policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: "The first eight months of the Covid crisis have been marked by an almighty economic shock and unprecedented support that has cushioned the impact in terms of people's livelihoods.

"Worryingly, fewer than half of those who have lost their jobs during the pandemic have been able to find work since. This suggests that even if the public health crisis recedes in a few months, Britain's jobs crisis will be with us for far longer."