'Back to life, back to reality'.
The UK economy is starting to show signs of improvement as the country eases out of the lockdown. Job vacancies are starting to reopen, household spending is starting to increase with more outings and more companies are also returning to business. Vehicle usage has also increased while property searches have risen in a still fragile housing market since the initial lifting of Covid-19 restrictions 11th May.
“Everything points to a slow, painful recovery, but we still think a recovery is under way,” said David Owen, economist at the financial company Jefferies.
However the overal picture is still one of depressed levels compared with life before the global pandemic. The leisure and hospitality sectors are starting to see positive signs of re-opening from the 15th June as announced by our prime minister, Boris Johnson.
Job Vaccansies are back rising
“The activity might be slightly above which we had in april, however it is still a long way from what you might call a normal levels,”stated Andrew Goodwin, senior economist at Oxford Economics. “The big concern for us is that government support will run out before we get to the level of activity that supports the number of jobs that it needs to support.”
The government have stated that 8.4M people have been furloughed by their employers during the pandemic, while official statistics however reported a record monthly increase in people claiming unemployment benefits in April. Also at the same time, job websites seem to be suggesting the labour market may have reached its lowest point during April.
Howevere, with non-essential businesses being given the green light to open shop again, we should see a drastic improvement in figures based around the furlough scheme and employment rate increasing.
Here are some infographics which illustrate changes over the months of the lockdown.
