KPMG comments on today's labour market data: April 2021

Latest figures confirm the strength of the furlough scheme with pick up in employment expected this summer says Yael Selfin, Chief Economist at KPMG UK:  

“The unemployment rate has been in a comatose state, thanks largely to the furlough scheme which still supported 4.8 million people in February.

“The fall in employment of 73,000 in the three months to February was mainly due to the fall in the self-employed and part-time employees, as full-time employment rose strongly. It’s likely that the slight decline in payrolled employees, as shown by the latest figures for March, will be reversed as more businesses are allowed to open.

“The rate of redundancies continued to fall for the third month in a row, suggesting that firms paused making cutbacks around the turn of year. We expect employment growth to pick up momentum as the economy re-opens with faster hiring, and accelerating pay growth as shown in the KPMG-REC report on jobs earlier this month.”

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