Saeed Pourreza
Press TV, London
Although predicted, the unprecedented number, released by the country’s Office of National Statistics, has had everyone gobsmacked. It marks the biggest recession the UK has faced since GDP was invented back in the 1930s.
Perhaps what he also knows is that this is a slump brought on at least partially by his government’s Coronavirus-related lockdown measures.
The figure is far greater than that of any other G7 economies such France, and Germany, both of whom went into lockdown before the UK And as the economy shrinks, unemployment numbers expand.
The British economy has shed almost three quarters of a million jobs since the start of the Coronavirus lockdown, the biggest hike since 2009, with more loses expected in the months ahead.
So far this year, the British government has kept a lid on the official unemployment numbers, through a salary support package, also known as the furlough scheme, helping employers retain workers.
But that will end come October 31st.
The big question now is whether there will be a bounce-back in the coming months.
But even if there is one, whatever the scale of it, economists say, it's almost inevitable that unemployment will sky-rocket