UK jobless rate highest since 2016 as second COVID-19 lockdown hits

Image
  Britain’s unemployment rate hit its highest in nearly five years in the three months to November, when coronavirus cases began to rise for a second time and most of the country returned to a partial lockdown. Redundancies touched a record high, taking the unemployment rate to 5.0%, its highest since mid-2016, according to official data, although the increase was slightly weaker than economists’ forecasts. There were some signs of a limited recovery in December, when lockdown measures eased, although a deterioration is likely in early 2021 as a tougher lockdown shut schools and closed most non-essential businesses to the public. Tax data for December showed a 52,000 increase in the number of staff on company payrolls from November, but there were 828,000 fewer workers on payrolls than in February. Economists said the data showed the jobs market was holding up better than many forecasters had feared.Unemployment has been kept down by the government’s Job Retention Scheme, which support
Post a Comment

Death toll rises to 154 in Beirut explosions

 The death toll in the huge explosions that rocked Port of Beirut on Tuesday has reached 154, Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan announced on Friday.

Hassan said that 20 percent of the 5,000 injuries need hospitalization while serious cases have reached 120 as the shattered glasses caused severe injuries that required surgeries, the National News Agency reported.

Two huge explosions rocked Port of Beirut on Tuesday evening, killing at least 154 people and injuring about 5,000 others, while causing massive damages in the city.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UK jobless rate highest since 2016 as second COVID-19 lockdown hits

Image
  Britain’s unemployment rate hit its highest in nearly five years in the three months to November, when coronavirus cases began to rise for a second time and most of the country returned to a partial lockdown. Redundancies touched a record high, taking the unemployment rate to 5.0%, its highest since mid-2016, according to official data, although the increase was slightly weaker than economists’ forecasts. There were some signs of a limited recovery in December, when lockdown measures eased, although a deterioration is likely in early 2021 as a tougher lockdown shut schools and closed most non-essential businesses to the public. Tax data for December showed a 52,000 increase in the number of staff on company payrolls from November, but there were 828,000 fewer workers on payrolls than in February. Economists said the data showed the jobs market was holding up better than many forecasters had feared.Unemployment has been kept down by the government’s Job Retention Scheme, which support
Read more

Covid-19: Preparations on to vaccinate 250-300 million Indians on priority

Image
A research scientist at India's Serum Institute, the world's largest maker of vaccines. India is gearing up to vaccinate at least 250-300 million people, including about 30 million health care and frontline workers, against  Coronavirus disease (Covid-19)  by July next year, for which it will be looking at procuring about 500-600 million vaccine doses. The Centre is regularly following up with the states to devise measures to successfully launch the Covid-19 vaccination drive across the country that is likely to start in the first quarter of next year when the vaccine is expected to be made available for use. Initially, the approvals to manufacturers are likely to be under the emergency use authorisation, and later after analysing full phase-3 clinical trials data, there will be marketing approvals in place for use by general public.A crucial part of the strategy is to get the exact list of people who need to be vaccinated on priority. States were asked to draw up a list of the
Read more

China Is Making It Harder to Solve the Mystery of How Covid Began

Image
  In the year since seafood hawkers started appearing at Wuhan’s hospitals sickened with a strange and debilitating pneumonia, the world has learned a lot about Covid-19, from the way it spreads to how to   inoculate   against the infection. Despite these advances, a chasm remains in our understanding of the virus that’s killed nearly 2 million people and   whipsawed   the global economy: we still don’t know how it began. Where the pathogen first emerged and how it transmitted to humans is a stubborn mystery, one that’s becoming more elusive with each passing month. Before the initial cluster among stall-holders at a produce market in central China, the trail largely goes cold, and the country the novel coronavirus hit first — the place many blame for unleashing the disease on an under-prepared world — now has little incentive to help find the true origin of the greatest public health emergency in a century. China has effectively snuffed out Covid-19, thanks to stringent border curbs, 
Read more