Since the start of the pandemic from March 2020 to March 2021 figures show that unemployment rate has increased by more than double according to the Office of National Statistics.
The graph below shows the rapid increase of the total unemployment rate in Leeds, the increase in rate began in March 2020 and peaked in September 2020 with the total unemployment rate being 36,515 people.
Many people due to the pandemic struggled to find work, figures show a lasting effect on unemployment rates, the pandemic has had in Leeds.
Lauren Arkell who lives in Leeds was unemployed during the start of the pandemic and said:
“I really struggled to find a job during Covid, especially when everything got shut down and we were told by the government to stay at home. It was a difficult time in every way.”
There is a worry that the pandemic has made a lasting impact on the unemployed in Leeds, with the figures continuing to rise, despite the end of the UK national lockdown.
The graph below uses unemployment figures from the Office of National Statistics, and shows the unemployment rate between men and women from January 2019 to October 2021. Men are seen to have a much higher rate of unemployment then women.
Both men and women unemployment rate increases at the start of the pandemic and stay high throughout the rest of the year in 2020.
Only in 2021 do the numbers start to decrease rapidly, January rates were 21,630 unemployed men and 13,660 unemployed women to 17,095 for men and 11,005 for women in October 2021.
Rebecca Owens a Higher Executive Officer at Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said that during the national pandemic in 2020:
“We had to expand our estates to make sure we could offer the service to take in to account, people in Leeds who were impacted [by the pandemic] … and still support our customers in our face to face.”
In order to tackle unemployment, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has introduced a new scheme to boost employment rate by actively bringing employers into the premises and starting the recruitment there.
