we start tonight with the chancellor's
somber warning about the prospects for
the uk economy
in the wake of the pandemic rishi sunak
says it's not obvious there will be
an immediate bounce back once lockdown
restrictions are eased more fully
and it could take some time for the
economy he says to get back to normal
his warning came as the latest figure
showed the number of people claiming
benefits for being out of work
had soared in april the first full month
of lockdown
to its highest level since the 1990s the
office for national statistics says 2.1
million people
claimed benefits last month that's up by
more than 856 000
and it's a rise of almost 70 percent and
the clearest sign yet
of the continuing economic cost of the
pandemic
the total number of registered deaths
linked to coronavirus in the last
24-hour period
was 545 and it means that the official
total across the uk
now stands at 35 thousand three hundred
and forty one
now in a moment we'll have more on the
loss of life especially in care homes
but first our economics editor faisal
islam looks at the rather
mixed picture for the economy
[Applause]
they aren't cutting jobs at this west
midlands fittings factory for shops and
libraries
just like the official jobs numbers but
only 12 workers a third of employees are
manufacturing the now in demand
protective screens the other 26 workers
remain on the payroll
officially employed but at home with
wages paid by the taxpayer
when you look at the alternatives which
is like redundancy or being laid off
then being furloughed is a really good
thing
it gives this business opportunity to
carry on with its workforce
the boss is grateful and unemployment
has been kept down
the furlough scheme has really worked
well for us
and if it wasn't for that i don't know
where we would be
the government's crisis job schemes have
concentrated tens of billions
into controlling unemployment but
official jobs numbers will soon
catch up with the pandemic crisis
reality all around us
and other figures today did show how
hard the jobs market has been hit
the 865 000 extra people claiming
jobless benefits in april
was a record monthly increase taking the
claimant counts for job seekers
allowance and universal credit to 2.1
million
the highest for 24 years in some regions
nearly doubling emma had been furloughed
but last week was told she'd lost her
job as an office worker
at an essex construction firm and is
finding getting a new one
difficult to be receiving a letter to
say that i've been selected to be
redundant
is awful petrifying
sorry i can't help but get emotional
about that because thinking about it
the number of job vacancies tumbled by a
quarterly record to 637
000 so it will be harder to get a job
too
i tried searching for jobs i've applied
for tens if not hundreds of positions
online but due to being an office worker
there's no offices open there's no
interviews being taken
at the moment it's it's a struggle to
try and find something
across the economy thousands of jobs
that were furloughed
for example at the cafe rouge restaurant
chain are now
under threat hundreds have been lost at
retailer debenhams
and also in the transport sector at
british airways
and at the ferry company piano benefit
numbers are surging and vacancies are
tumbling
just how far unemployment will shoot up
is for now being limited by the
government paying the wages of
one in three workers that is a bridge
for the livelihoods of 10 million people
that will not last and now the
chancellor whose schemes are built
around the idea
of a rapid bounce back in the economy
says it's not obvious
that that will occur so a significant
rise in unemployment can't now be
avoided says the government
i certainly won't be able to protect
every job in every business
we're already seeing that in the data
and and no doubt that there will be more
hardship to come
this lockdown as having a very
significant impact
on our economy we are likely to face a
severe recession the likes of which we
haven't seen
but the opposition said more is needed
especially for younger workers
we still have to be aware that the costs
tend to fall on younger people
not just because people who have lost
their jobs but because they haven't been
able to move into the workforce
to begin with the pandemics has caused a
global jobs catastrophe
even when lockdowns are lifted it's when
the support is withdrawn
but the real picture will emerge facial
islam bbc news
well as we've heard part of the economic
impact of the pandemic is
a sharp rise in the number of those
claiming universal credit that's the
relatively new benefit for working age
people in the uk
for some who are now looking for work
it's the first time that they've had to
make a claim
and to experience this new system as our
social affairs correspondent
michael buchanan reports can i just
confirm
what was your first job another job loss
another person in need you would have
been asked for two security questions
over the past few weeks leslie piercy
has spoken to just about everyone
uber drivers lots of restaurants lots of
businesses shopkeepers
and cafes and a lot of taxi drivers
some have lost minimum wage jobs others
six-figure salaries a lot of the people
like the stock brokers and that wants to
go back into stock broking because it is
specifically it's quite a high-paid job
um but some of those people are having
to rethink their careers as well
one particular gentleman that i had he
had a very very well paid job so did his
wife and he
went to become a night porter at hotel
leslie worked at a job centre in
hertfordshire
normally that process 60 benefit claims
a week
recently they've been dealing with
several thousand so that's me found you
on our system
helen collier has only worked here for
three months forced immediately to help
the unfamiliar
navigate the benefits system i
definitely think the people
that have been made redundant and
they've been long-standing employees
are often confused they've never made a
claim to anything before
so they're always the hardest but i feel
like they're the ones that
you know that you're doing something
good to help them
there are usually around 50 000 claims a
week for universal credit
but look at the impact of the lockdown
for two weeks claims were running at 10
times normal levels
one and a half million applications in
total in just one month
my mindset has never been to go on
benefits i've just struggled and worked
my way
through it carl alliston has a boxing
coach who has no one to train
unable to earn the 50 year old turn to
universal credit for help
the first time he's been on benefits in
decades for me there was no option and
so
i don't feel guilty about it i feel that
i'm eligible for it and
i'm you know i'm working my way out
sincerely how to get out of it
when everything's over today's data
revealed the largest rise in
applications had been in the south west
of england
where the area's crucial tourist
industry has been badly hit
an all hands on deck approach has
allowed universal credit to cope with
the surge in demand
most claimants have been thankful hoping
the welfare system
is a helping hand in a time of need not
a permanent
harder way of living michael buchanan
bbc news
let's uh draw some of this together with
our economics editor faisal islam and go
back to what the chancellor was saying
today faisal
now in your view to what extent has he
changed his tune really on the prospects
for the economy
after the lockdown is relaxed more fully
yeah
the language has strengthened since last
week that
the word severe recession was what he
used to lords today
and he said it was not obvious that
there would be a sharp bounce back
um and he said he wouldn't speculate on
that uh last
week and i think what you get is perhaps
what is
is obvious to many people that things
have changed hugely in
the economy and essentially you have two
unprecedented forces at work here
you have the pandemic the shutdowns the
global recession a global jobs
catastrophe
on the one hand then you have these
unprecedented for britain
moves by the government to pay people's
wages tens of billions of pounds
10 million wages being paid right now
by the government it's just quite
difficult to work out exactly how those
two forces shake out
but i think what you can take away from
what the chancellor said
and from the figures today is the
expectations of that sharp bounce back
which had to be assumed at the beginning
are beginning to diminish and certainly
in some industries
when the lockdowns are lifted the
recovery won't be
in days or weeks for some industries it
will be more like months or years
like thanks very much alesnanda our
economics editor