UK unemployment rate could hit 15% after second Covid wave

Credit;PA

Nearly one in seven people in the UK may be unemployed by the end of this year if your second wave from the pandemic washes over the country, based on new estimates.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said britain's unemployment rate could reach 14.8% since it's experts warned that global job losses might take unemployment rates to levels more comparable to the 1930s than 2008.

But even without a second wave of infections, the united kingdom unemployment rates are prone to reach a record high of as much as 11.7% by the end of this year, the OECD reported.

Next year it would fall to 7.2% when there is no second wave, but nevertheless a massive rise from the end of 2021, when the unemployment rate was 3.8%.

“The war needs to be won and it has to become won fast,” said OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria, adding the economic disaster continues to be magnified by the inability to fight the virus.

Medieval times

“We do not have vaccine and we don't have a medicine, we're impotent – we're closing down the cities like they used to do during medieval times, because it's the only thing we all know that works.”

It came amid dire economic warnings from his colleagues.

OECD director of employment, labour and social affairs Stefano Scarpetta said: “Only within 3 to 4 months, in terms of unemployment, we have gone back to where we peaked following the 2008 economic crisis.

“I think we're referring to an impact around the labour market, that is unfortunately closer to the Great Depression a lot more than the economic crisis – the impact is huge.”

Last month the OECD warned that the British economy would face a significant hit from the Covid-19 pandemic.

It expects GDP to decrease 11.5% in 2021, and as much as 14% when there is another wave later around.

Mr Gurria said: “These numbers don't convey the massive hardship that is implied by a rise in unemployment of the scale. They mean large jumps in poverty, personal bankruptcies, depression, homelessness, crime. That's why policy responses must be timely, they must be ambitious, plus they must be sustained.”

“The young are once more vulnerable to becoming the largest losers of the crisis,” he added.