The Office for National Statistics (ONS) shares the current state of the labour market ending April 2021.    To the surprise of many economists who were expecting the unemployment rate to be much higher than the current 4.9% which is 0.9% higher than previous year. This is, to a large extent, due to economic support by Government towards furlough and Covid-19 Relief schemes. Since the start of the pandemic the UK Government has granted £54 billion towards COVID-19 relief schemes to … [Read more...]