With the Coronavirus getting tougher and tougher in the UK, companies, employees and the overall job market is taking the worst beating. Funny enough, the unemployment rate stays strong at 3.9% for the last six months with the highest amount of people expecting the numbers to suddenly start increasing reaching anywhere between 4.5% to 9% with some expecting it to go a lot higher.
After going through all the details last Friday, it seems that the UK is on track toward one of the worst recessions that they have seen, in the previous three centuries. The current trend shows that the UK has an increasing number of people unemployed and claiming benefits. This number is rising faster than at any point in our history.
The primary reason the unemployment rate is staying at 3.9% and not falling any lower, is the Government schemes that have been supporting the economy since the beginning of the pandemic in March. One of the most popular of these has been the Government’s emergency wage subsidy scheme, through which, the UK Government was paying
80% of the salaries of people who were working, while their employers only had to pay, the outstanding 20%. The scheme only worked up to £2,500 per month with the company paying the rest. They managed to protect 8 million jobs across the country, protecting about 1 million companies.
Since the Government cannot keep these schemes going forever, they would have to slow them down eventually. The only fear at the moment they reduce their subsidies, it seems that most companies might not be able to get through and cave under the pressure. Currently, most businesses and companies cannot pay the entire amount with a giant chunk of the workforce only receiving 80% of their pay. Even though the Government is assisting with salary payments, companies could not hold on to all their staff and were pushing out a large number of them and replacing them with automation and or software. Additionally, a lot of people without jobs were
not looking to begin working anytime soon. The main reason being that the economy was not stable enough, but also they did not want to start working and lose their jobs. Furthermore, they did not want to get sick again and through it would be better to spend more time at home.
Additionally, they are making changes to the way companies are functioning, with the most significant one being moving to video calls for client meetings. These changes were not very common, and it took a lot of companies a lot of trouble getting used to these changes.
Furthermore, employers were not meeting a lot of the people who were working in their companies since even some hiring processes were online. To make sure they were not making incorrect decisions when they were picking employees, they began conducting DBS checks on their employees. These checks were to gather background information on the people working within a company. They also wanted to make sure that the people who they were hiring could be trusted, and would be a proper fit for the job. The DBS check also provides information on various aspects of their lives, including how to react with different types of people such as the older and younger sections of society.
