The Bank of England last week forecast that Britain's unemployment rate would reach 6.3 per cent by the end of this year and peak at nearly 8 per cent in the second quarter of next year. — Reuters pic
The unemployment rate rose to 4.8 per cent, as expected in a Reuters poll of economists and the highest rate since the three months to November 2016. "And with the second lockdown set to send the recovery into reverse, the unemployment rate may yet climb to about 9 per cent next year."