Mass Unemployment - Policies to Protect Jobs

In this video we consider how the UK government might avoid mass unemployment in the wake of the covid-19 public health crisis.

The unemployment rate

The unemployment rate is the proportion of the economically active population (those in work plus those seeking and available to work) who are unemployed.

Mass unemployment

Mass unemployment exists when officially one person in ten in the labour force is counted as being out of work. In practice, the true levelunemployment might be significantly higher than this.

In their June 2020 forecast, the OECD predicts that real GDP in the UK economy will fall by 11% in 2020. It thinks that by the end of 2020, the rate of unemployment will 9.7% of the labour force.

According to the IFS, median (middle) household income(including benefits) in May 2020 was 8% lower, and the number of jobs was 4% lower than in March 2020. Both are signs of a sharply-contracting economy.