Covid-19 starts biting in job numbers

Wed, 04 Nov 2020

The ranks of the unemployed swelled by a record 37,000 in the third quarter as the impact of covid-19 hit the labour market. The next largest rise in a single quarter was recorded in June 2009 during the global financial crisis when the number of unemployed rose by 18,000. The unemployment rate was 5.3 percent, up from 4.0 percent in the second quarter, bringing the seasonally adjusted number of unemployed people to 151,000. The number jumped 32.5 percent versus the June quarter. The 4 percent unemployment rate in the seco...

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