Government’s furlough scheme prevents higher increase in joblessness in December
Unemployment edged higher to 5.1% in December as the government’s furlough scheme continued to prevent a steep rise in job losses in the run-up to Christmas.
With much of economy still in enforced hibernation, the unemployment rate in the three months to December increased from 5% in November and was up by 1.5 percentage points from a year earlier according to the Office for National Statistics.
