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  • we start tonight.

  • With the chancellor's somber warning about the prospects for the UK economy in the wake off the pandemic, Rishi Sirnak says it's not obvious there will be a new immediate bounce back.

  • Once locked down, restrictions are eased more fully on.

  • It could take some time for the economy, he says, to get back to normal.

  • His warning came as the latest figures showed the number of people claiming benefits for being out of work had soared in April, the first full month of locked down to its highest level since the 19 nineties.

  • The Office for National Statistics says 2.1 million people came benefits last month.

  • That's up by more than 856,000 and it's a rise of almost 70% on the clearest sign yet off the continuing economic cost off the pandemic.

  • Total number off registered deaths linked a Corona virus in the last 24 hour period was 545 and it means that the official total across the UK now stands at 35,341 now.

  • In a moment we'll have more on the loss of life, especially in care homes.

  • But first, our economics editor, Faisal Islam, looks at the rather mixed picture for the economy.

  • They aren't cutting jobs in this West Midlands fittings factory for shops and libraries, just like the official jobs numbers.

  • But only 12 workers.

  • 1/3 of employees are manufacturing now in demand protective screens.

  • The other 26 workers remain on the payroll, officially employed but at home with wages paid by the taxpayer.

  • When you look at the alternatives, which is like redundancy or being laid off, then being fell out ism really good thing.

  • It's gives this business opportunity to carry on with its work force.

  • The boss is grateful, and unemployment has been kept down.

  • They for Loach.

  • Game has really worked well for us, Andi.

  • If it wasn't for that, I don't know where we would bay the government's crisis.

  • Job schemes have concentrated tens of billions into controlling unemployment, but official jobs numbers will soon catch up with the pandemic crisis Reality all around us on other figures today did show how hard the jobs market has been hit.

  • The 865,000 extra people claiming jobless benefits in April was a record monthly increase, taking the claimant accounts for Jobseeker's allowance and universal credits to 2.1 million, the highest for 24 years in some regions.

  • Nearly doubling Emma had been furloughed, but last week was told she had lost her job as an office worker, a genetics construction firm, and is finding getting a new one.

  • Difficult to be receiving a letter to say that I've been selected to be redundant, his awful petrifying, so I can't help but get emotional about that.

  • He's thinking about it.

  • The number of job vacancies tumbled by a quarterly record to 637,000.

  • So will be harder to get a job, too.

  • I tried searching for jobs.

  • I've applied for tens, if not hundreds of positions online, but due to be in an office worker.

  • But there's no offices open.

  • There's no interviews being taken At the moment.

  • It's It's a struggle to try and find something across the economy.

  • Thousands of jobs that were furloughed, for example, at the Cafe Rouge restaurant chain and now under threat.

  • Hundreds have been lost retailer Debenhams and also in the transport sector at British Airways and at the ferry company piano benefit numbers are surging on, vacancies are tumbling.

  • Just how far unemployment will shoot up is for now being limited by the government's paying the wages off one in three workers.

  • That is a bridge for the livelihoods off 10 million people that will not last.

  • And now the chancellor who schemes are built around the idea of a rapid bounce back in the economy says that it's not obvious that that's will occur.

  • So a significant rise in unemployment can't now be avoided, says the government.

  • I certainly won't better protect every job and every business.

  • We're already seeing that in the data on DNO.

  • Doubt that there will be more hardship to come.

  • This locked down as having a very significant impact on our economy were likely to face a severe recession, the likes of which we haven't seen.

  • But the opposition said more is needed, especially for younger workers.

  • We still have to be aware that the costs tend to fall on younger people, not just those people who have lost their jobs, but because they haven't been able to move into the work force to begin with.

  • The pandemic has caused a global jobs catastrophe even when locked down to lifted its.

  • When this supporters withdrawal, the real picture will emerge.

  • Faisal Islam, BBC News Well, as we've heard, part of the economic impact of the pandemic is a sharp rise in the number of those claiming universal credit.

  • That's the relatively new benefit for working age people in the UK For some who are now looking for work, it's the first time that they've had to make a claim on DTA.

  • Experience this new system, as our social affairs correspondent Michael Buchanan reports, Can I just confirm what was your first job?

  • Another job loss, another person in need?

  • It would have been asked for two security questions.

  • Over the past few weeks, Leslie Piercy have spoken to just about everyone over drivers, lots of restaurants, lots of businesses, shopkeepers and cafes and a lot of taxi drivers.

  • Some have lost minimum wage jobs, others six figure salaries.

  • A lot of people like the stockbrokers and that wants to get back into stockbroking because it is specifically it's quite high paid job and that some of those people happen to rethink their careers as well.

  • One particular gentleman that I had they had a very, very well paid job, said it, his wife and he When it's become a night porter out hotel, Leslie worked at a job centre in Harper Chur.

  • Normally that Prusis 60 benefit claims a week recently have been dealing with several 1000.

  • That's me found Melancholia has only worked here for three months, forced immediately to help the unfamiliar navigate the benefits system.

  • I definitely think that people that have been made redundant and they've been longstanding employees are often confused.

  • They've never made a claim to anything before, so they're always the hardest.

  • But I feel like they're the ones that you know that you're doing something good to help them.

  • They're usually alone.

  • 50,000 claims a week for universal credit.

  • But look at the impact of the lock down for two weeks.

  • Claims for running attain times normal levels.

  • 1.5 1,000,000 applications in total In just one month, my mind set has never been to go on benefits after struggled and worked my way through it.

  • Carl Allison has a boxing coach was No.

  • One to train, unable to air in the 50 year old turn to universal credit for help.

  • The first time he's been on benefits in decades.

  • It was ocean, and so I don't feel guilty about eligible for.

  • And you know, I'm working my way out sincerely, how to get out of it.

  • When things over today's data revealed, the largest rise and applications had been in the southwest of England, where the areas crucial tourist industry has been badly hit on all hands on deck approaches allowed universal credit to cope with a surge in demand.

  • Most claimants have been thankful, hoping the welfare system is a helping hand in a time of need, not a permanent, harder way of living.

  • Michael Buchanan, BBC News Let's draw some of this together with our economics editor Faisal Islam and go back to what the chancellor was saying today.

  • If I saw now, in your view, to what extent has changed, his tune really on the prospects for the economy after the lock down is relaxed, more fully.

  • Language has strengthened since last week that the word severe recession was used to Lourdes today, and he said it was not obvious that there would be a sharp bounce back on.

  • He said he wouldn't speculate on that last week on I think what you get is perhaps what is is obvious to many people that things have changed hugely in the economy and essentially you have to unprecedented forces at work.

  • Here you have the pandemic that shutdowns the global recession of global jobs catastrophe.

  • On the one hand, then you have these unprecedented for Britain moves by the government to pay people's wages tens of billions of pounds, 10 million wages being paid right now by the government.

  • It's just quite difficult to work out exactly how those two forces shake out.

  • But I think you can take away from Chancellor said on from the figures.

  • Today is the expectations off that sharp bounce back, which had to be assumed at the beginning, are beginning to diminish on.

  • Certainly in some industries, when the lockdowns are lifted, the recovery won't be in days or weeks.

  • For some, industries will be more months or years.

  • It's like and that's very much puzzle is on.

we start tonight.

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