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Coronavirus: Job losses 'just the tip of the iceberg'
Jun 5, 2020
The boss of the UK's largest recruitment firm, Reed, has said he fears current trends suggest far more people are going to lose their jobs because of the coronavirus crisis.
James Reed predicted the unemployment rate could reach 15%, meaning five million people could be out of work.
He said recent job cuts by firms were "perhaps just the tip of the iceberg".
Reed has seen job advertisements drop by two-thirds, while applications per job are rising.
This week Bentley, Aston Martin, car dealership Lookers and engineering giant Rolls-Royce have all announced job cuts.
More gloom for car industry as 2,000 jobs axed More than a quarter of UK workers now furloughed Universal credit claims hit record during lockdown
Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, Mr Reed said more losses could be on the way since small businesses do not have to give advance notice of lay offs, as big companies do.
"My concern is that the data that we're seeing, which is that the number of jobs advertised is down two-thirds and has been consistently for two months now, suggests that there could be a lot more job losses to come," he said.
He predicts unemployment will rise sharply in the autumn, when the government's furlough scheme comes to an end.
Mr Read said some people had predicted unemployment could reach levels not seen since the 1980s, when the jobless rate reached 11.9%.
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