Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing! The post Hello world! appeared first on Learning and Work Institute ..read more

Employment experts call for £1 billion Youth Guarantee and urgent investment in education and back-to-work support Full report The Government needs to act now to tackle the fastest spike in unemployment on record or risk permanent damage to our economy and people’s livelihoods, a group of experts say today.  The call comes ahead of new labour market data which are expected to show the first official signs of the rise in unemployment resulting from the coronavirus crisis. During March and April 2.5 million people made a new claim for Universal Credit, and the Office for National ..read more

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has saved millions of jobs and prevented an even more catastrophic rise in unemployment than we’ve already seen. The Chancellor is right to extend and reform the scheme to prevent more people losing their jobs, but better target help where it is needed most. First, let’s reflect on the success of the furlough scheme. In the US, 30 million people have filed a new unemployment claim in the six weeks since mid-March. This has led the unemployment rate to spike up to 15%, compared to 4.4% in March. In the UK, there were 2.5 million Universal Credit claims durin ..read more

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme must be extended for three months and reformed in order to prevent a ‘second wave’ of unemployment and support a phased return to work, according to a leading think tank. Full report. The report by Learning and Work Institute finds the scheme has been successful in limiting job losses and protecting incomes. While it has been costly – at around £14 billion a month – not acting would have led to a far larger increase in unemployment and to lasting damage to the economy. This would have meant an additional bill for out of work benefits of up to £5 billion a m ..read more

Responding to today’s figures on Universal Credit claims from 1 March to 28 April 2020, our chief executive, Stephen Evans comments: “The figures released today support our finding that five years of employment growth have been wiped out in one month. With almost 2.5 million people making a Universal Credit claim during March and April, seven times higher than normal, and 6 million people furloughed under the government’s scheme, this means around one in five adults has either lost their job or been furloughed. “It could’ve been worse without measures like the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ..read more

An unprecedented and wide-ranging economic downturn is on the horizon due to Covid-19. The full economic impact will not be known for some time but it has already had a serious negative impact on the labour market with employment rates taking a significant hit and 1.4 million additional Universal Credit claims generated since the crisis began. What is clear from our own research and from that of others, is that the negative economic effects of this crisis are likely to disproportionately affect women, younger people and low earners. Even before the pandemic, the CBI predicted that 9 in 10 work ..read more

Responding to the latest labour marker statistics, Stephen Evans, chief executive of Learning and Work Institute, said;  “These data are from just before the coronavirus crisis hit. They show the UK went in to the pandemic with record high employment.  “Things look very different today. Our analysis suggests that five years of employment growth were wiped out in the first month of the crisis. Despite the government’s unprecedented interventions, unemployment is likely to exceed the level reached in the last recession, and the crisis risks worsening pre-existing inequal ..read more

Coronavirus set to lead to unprecedented unemployment shock and widening economic inequalities  Analysis suggests five years of employment growth reversed in one month  New analysis by Learning and Work Institute shows that the coronavirus crisis will cause an unprecedented increase in unemployment which risks exacerbating pre-existing economic inequalities.   The report warns that despite the measures put in place by government to protect jobs, unemployment is set to rise further and faster than during any recession on record. There were over 400,000 Universal Credit claims in a week at th ..read more

Analysis suggests five years of employment growth reversed in one month. New analysis by Learning and Work Institute shows that the coronavirus crisis will cause an unprecedented increase in unemployment which risks exacerbating pre-existing economic inequalities.   The report warns that despite the measures put in place by government to protect jobs, unemployment is set to rise further and faster than during any recession on record. There were over 400,000 Universal Credit claims in a week at the end of March, a figure over 7 times higher than the year before. The number of claims is nearly f ..read more

As the minimum wage increases tomorrow by a record amount, new research shows overwhelming support for further rises to the wage floor in order to tackle low pay.   The report, based on a large-scale representative survey of adults across the UK and focus groups with low paid workers, found that two in three adults (66%) thought that the wage floor was too low, and that it should be increased, with just one in fifty (2%) saying it was too high. Support for boosting the minimum wage was highest among young adults, low income households, and those in lower socio-economic groups.  The National Li ..read more