UK unemployment claims soared by more than 69 per cent in April after the coronavirus lockdown gripped the labour market, official figures reveal.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that jobless claims under Universal Credit surged by a record 856,000 to 2.1 million in April, compared with the previous month.
Official statisticians also said early estimates for April 2020 indicate that the number of paid employees fell by 1.6 per cent compared with March, as firms began to feel a greater impact from the lockdown.
Job vacancies also significantly decreased, with the number of empty posts in the three months to April diving by 170,000 to 637,000, compared with the previous quarter.
The ONS also revealed that unemployment increased by 50,000 to 1.35 million in the three months to March, as the impact of the pandemic first started to be felt in the UK.
The rate of unemployment nudged marginally higher, to 3.9 per cent, but remained markedly below economists' predictions of 4.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, the number of people in work increased by 210,000 to 33.14 million for the quarter to March.
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