Unemployment rate: How many people are out of work?
(30 days later)
Millions of people across the UK have had their working lives upended because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Jobs are being cut around the UK because of the impact of coronavirus, but the unemployment rate has remained unchanged.
While many are working from home, others have been furloughed for weeks or even made redundant.
However, the number of people claiming unemployment benefits surged to 2.6 million between March and June, according to official figures.
So who has been affected most to date by job losses? And which sectors have been worst hit?
So what is going on in the UK's labour market, and how bad is the unemployment rate?
Job losses
How many people are unemployed?
The UK unemployment rate held steady at 3.9% in the three months to April, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Unemployment has always been difficult to measure. One measure comes from the Labour Force Survey, which asks thousands of people every month if they are unemployed and looking for work.
But separate figures from the ONS show that the number of workers on UK payrolls dropped by more than 600,000 between March and May.
This survey is used to calculate the unemployment rate, which has hardly budged in recent months. At 3.9% it's close to the lowest it has been for 40 years, as if the current crisis never happened.
Meanwhile, the number of people claiming work-related benefits jumped 23% in May to hit 2.8 million.
However, the figures are always a few months behind. The July ones are based on responses from March to May - so some of the answers were gathered before the lockdown began.
This figure doesn't include everyone who is out of work, since not all can claim assistance, but it does provide a snapshot. It also captures some low-income workers.
Also, if you tell this survey that you are not looking for work, you will not be counted as unemployed, but as "inactive".
These early estimates hint at the impact of lockdown measures in the UK, which has seen more than nine million workers furloughed under the government's job retention scheme.
In a lockdown, many people will not be able to look for new jobs. So the number of inactive people who want a job rose by a record 253,000.
Some economists say the full impact on the jobs market won't be felt until the furlough scheme ends in October.
Many of the people who told the survey they are employed are on furlough - where people stop working but keep their jobs, and the government pays part of their wages. Latest figures show 9.4 million jobs had been furloughed by the end of June.
Fewer hours worked
And the Office for National Statistics (ONS) identified around half a million workers who say they have a job but are not working or being paid - freelance bar staff, for example, who expect to return to work when their pubs reopen.
UK workers are clocking fewer hours as parts of the economy are at a standstill after lockdown measures were introduced on 23 March.
How many job vacancies are there?
The total number of weekly hours worked recently saw its largest annual fall since records began in 1992.
Other official data shows how coronavirus is beginning to affect the world of work.
The ONS said the total number of weekly hours worked in the three months to April had dropped to 959.9 million - down by a record 94.2 million, or 9%, on the previous year.
The number of employees paying tax fell by 649,000 from March to June. Average earnings fell, and the average number of hours people worked dropped by a record amount, according to figures for March to May.
The drop in hours was "partly due" to the number of employees who have been furloughed, it added.
The number of job vacancies saw the biggest falls since data was first gathered in 2001. Retail, restaurants and hotels were particularly hard-hit.
Job vacancies dip
If that continues, the lack of new openings will make a big contribution to future unemployment. Young people will struggle to get their first jobs, and workers who lose their jobs will struggle to find new opportunities.
The estimated number of vacancies in the UK fell sharply during the 2008 financial crisis.
How many people are claiming unemployment benefits?
Since 2012, they've generally been on the up, reaching a record high of 855,000 between November 2018 and January 2019.
The figure for people claiming benefits paints a contradictory picture.
But between March and May this year, there were an estimated 476,000 vacancies in the UK, 342,000 fewer than in the previous quarter.
Over the past three months the number of people claiming out-of-work benefits more than doubled. It reached 2.6 million in June - an extraordinary rise - though it has fallen slightly since May.
Recent research by the IFS also suggests that workers across the board could have fewer options due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, there are question marks over this number.
Having analysed jobs posted on the Department for Work and Pensions' website in real-time, it found that they had started to drop off around mid-March.
Benefit claimants are migrating to the new universal credit (UC) system.
By the time the lockdown was announced, firms had stopped posting new vacancies almost entirely.
Many groups which would not have been included before are listed as "searching for work" under UC and thus appearing in the claimant numbers. For instance, some are working, but only earning small amounts.
Young people hardest hit
Also, many workers may have made a UC claim before receiving support payments from the government. These would have been under the Job Retention Scheme or furlough (which temporarily pays 80% of their wages,) or the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
Young workers seem to have been most impacted by lockdown measures so far.
According to research from the Resolution Foundation think tank, these groups account for more than a quarter of the rise in claimant numbers. Only 45% of the rise in benefit claimants between March and May was down to newly unemployed people, it calculates.
Recent research by the Resolution Foundation think-tank suggests that 9% of those aged between 18 and 24 have lost their jobs altogether, the highest of any age group.
The foundation calls the claimant count a "poor barometer of unemployment", and the ONS does not list it as an official statistic any more.
Meanwhile, a previous study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that shutdown sectors employed nearly one-third of all workers under the age of 25, or 25% of young men and 36% of young women.
What will happen to unemployment in the future?
That compares to just one in eight workers aged 25 and over.
The furlough scheme ends in October - and employers will have to decide if they can afford to keep those workers or let them go. That could see a big wave of unemployment in the autumn.
The IFS said that young people, women and the lowest earners will be most affected economically by the pandemic.
A survey in May by the Resolution Foundation found that a quarter of furloughed workers thought they were likely to be laid off.
Sector shutdown
The big job cuts announcements made by companies from the start of July won't come through in the official numbers for a couple of months at least.
Many staff have been furloughed in sectors that have been forced to shut down during lockdown.
Predicting what will happen to unemployment is impossible - but scenarios published by the government's spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, give an official view of what might happen.
Those include retail, leisure and hospitality, where a high proportion of women work.
In its optimistic "upside" scenario, the unemployment rate peaks at 9.7% this year, and returns to pre-crisis levels in 2022.
Although non-essential shops have since reopened in England and Northern Ireland, pubs and restaurants will not be allowed to open their doors until July at the earliest.
In the "downside" scenario, it peaks at 13.2%, in 2021 - 4 million people out of work. It is still at 6.3% by the end of this scenario in 2024, still well above pre-crisis levels.
The largest proportion of the workforce being furloughed was recorded in accommodation and food service activities, which includes hotels, restaurants and cafes.
What questions do you have about unemployment, benefits, what happens next?
That was followed by those working in construction and manufacturing, according to one ONS survey.
In some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.
North East sees most out of work
Use this form to ask your question:
The coronavirus lockdown has caused severe disruption to business activity across the UK.
Some parts of the country will feel the negative effect on their local economies more than others.
The North East of England had the highest unemployment rate estimate for the three months to the end of April at 5.2%.
The largest rise in the unemployment rate on the previous quarter was seen in Scotland, where it went up by 1.1 percentage points, followed by the West Midlands, which saw a rise of 0.3 percentage points.
These figures can be volatile, and for now it is too early to say to what extent the jump in the estimate for Scotland is part of a longer term trend, the ONS said.
One report by the Centre for Cities found that the economic pain inflicted by Covid-19 will be felt unequally across the UK, with workers in more affluent areas such as the South East able to work from home, for example.
The coronavirus crisis risks widening regional inequalities, and frustrating government efforts to "level up" prosperity across the UK, it suggests.
Global workforce
Following the financial crisis, global unemployment increased by 22 million, according to the International Labour Organization.
A previous study by the group found that the majority of those job losses occurred across more developed economies.
But the coronavirus crisis has disrupted supply chains around the world in a way never seen before.
As some governments lift lockdown restrictions, it remains to be seen what the full impact on the jobs market will be.
In the United States, employers cut more than 21 million jobs in March and April, as lockdowns forced businesses to shut their doors.
In April, the unemployment rate hit 14.7%, the highest level since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
This fell slightly to 13.3% in May as the government released billions of dollars in emergency aid to businesses to cover wages for employees, encouraging them to rehire staff.
But more than 30 million people continue to collect unemployment benefits, according to the US Labor Department.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said that for many, recession is "unavoidable".
