The UK was cruising with their unemployment rate numbers staying stable at 3.9% when the Coronavirus hit.
Their unemployment rate stood at 3.9% in the second quarter of 2020 which remained unchanged from the previous three-month and below market expectations of 4.2%, as many people gave up looking for work, so were not considered to be unemployed.
Another prominent reason for this was the Government emergency wage subsidy scheme, according to Economists.
Otherwise, there would have been a drastic increase in unemployment.
They protected about 8 million jobs at about 1 million companies in the opening weeks of the programme.
According to the scheme, the government paid 80% of workers wages up to £2,500 per month, while not considering furloughed workers as unemployed.
Meanwhile, employment fell by 220000 to 32.92 million, the highest quarterly drop from May to July 2009, with the coronavirus pandemic hitting the labour market.
Approximately 7.5 million people were estimated to be out of work in June, with over 3 million not working for three months or more.
Furthermore, around 300,000 people are receiving no pay in June.
In April, the number of jobless people jumped by 70% with the number of people claiming unemployment benefits at 2.1 million.
If the country stays closed any longer, projections show that its unemployment rate could significantly rise.
A rise in unemployment to 14.8% by the second wave of the virus would be a higher level than France, Germany, and Italy, but lower than Spain, according to the Paris-based thinktank, funded by 35 rich countries.
If however, they can avoid the second wave, the UK’s unemployment rate is likely to rise to 11.7% by the end of the year, the highest level since 1984 when it peaked at 11.9%.
According to the Office of National Statistics, in the weeks from April 6th to 19th, 23% of businesses temporarily closed or paused trading, with around 60% continuing to trade reporting a fall in revenues.
Economic activity will recover as they lift lockdown restrictions, but the speed and patterns are highly uncertain and vary by sector.
In McKinsey’s midpoint scenario, they expect the UK GDP in 2020 to shrink by 9%.
About half of all jobs requiring significant physical interactions, face a risk of contagion with the way the Coronavirus spreads.
With this being the case, a lot of the work that people could generally handle might have to be put on the back burner even when the economy begins opening up.
Companies now had to start keeping up with the work from home rules which were not easy.
Not all employees could work from home, since that depends on the type of work they handle.
As long as in-person meetings were not a priority, companies have to begin making changes and fast.
One of the significant changes were online interviews and hiring people, who employers did not meet in person.
They had to handle a CRB check to make sure they could trust their employees.
To assist with the process, employers could now work on a CRB check online for faster results.