True: More than 700,000 jobs were lost in the UK in 2020.

By: Ranjini K
August 19 2020

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Around 9 million people are on temporarily leave or furloughed from paid work in the first half of 2020 in the United Kingdom.The UK government announced social distancing measures aimed at protecting businesses due to the spread of Covid-19. The move resulted in people being furloughed or otherwise away from work due to the pandemic. The government announced a job retention scheme to help workers and businesses affected by the epidemic, which is winding down slowly. The unemployment rate compared to the same period in 2019 has tripled to 7.3 million (22.3 percent) from April to June 2020. Even though hiring has improved since June as pubs and hospitality industry have reopened, the Office of National Statistics said that the number of vacancies remained 45 percent low compared to 2019. Figures show that 5 million employees are still on the furlough scheme, and an additional 400,000 employees are temporarily off of work, receiving no pay. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.