It's official, the number of people working in the UK significantly decreased with a lot of people falling out of work as the pandemic progresses. Unfortunately, the official data paints a different image. It is not that the official information is lying but measures details a little differently, for various reasons. The main ones being that they gather employment and unemployment rates through surveys conducted over three months, from January to March. Most of this information was gathered pre lockdown since the pandemic was only significant for the last nine days of March.

However, if they analyse the numbers of people without work in greater detail, the UK jobless claims soar by nearly 70% in April. Furthermore, with a lot of people out of work, others temporarily on leave, Government schemes and other random information, it is a little tough to measure proper information now, during the pandemic.

People would be able to see a more accurate, yet largely incomplete picture, through the alternative method used by the Office for National Statistics to calculate unemployment called the claimant count. It showed a rise of 856,000 to 2.1 million in April, the highest monthly increase since modern records began in 1971. The most affected people are aged between 18 to 24 years and were among the worst affected by job cuts along with workers over the age of 65, who suffered the biggest fall in employment since records began. The numbers of those aged 65 years and over and in work decreased by 161,000 to 1.26 million, over the three months to June.

The highest amount of people to leave the job market were from the two groups mentioned causing them to become economically inactive. Surprisingly, this barely changed the official unemployment rate. The falls in employment is the greatest among the youngest and oldest workers, along with those in lower-skilled jobs. Simply put, most of the people who could either be replaced by automation or machines were the first to be fired. The positive from this entire situation is that the vacancy numbers have started rising again in July, is pushing toward a slight recovery. This rise was seen largely in small businesses and sectors such as hospitality, but demand for workers remains depressed.

Figures from our main survey show there has been a rise in people without a job and not looking for one, though wanting to work. However, this did not mean that the people in question did not want a job. Also, there are still a large number of people who say they are working no hours and getting zero pay. With a group also running their enterprise that might currently be shut with the lockdown but is looking to open soon.

Employers have started conducting background checks on the people working within their company, which is their right. They currently use the detailed DBS check, which other than providing the criminal of the employee, if any, it also provides information about their past experiences dealing with the young and the old, like dealing with babies and senior citizens. This information could come in handy, depending on the work and the industry. Furthermore, they can now coordinate a DBS online check to save time and effort and have the report mailed to their email ID.