COVID-19 impact: UK unemployment rate hits highest level in 3 years

The UK's unemployment rate has hit the highest level in three years in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Tuesday.

In its latest update, the ONS said that an estimated 1.5 million people were unemployed between June and August, while redundancies stood at 227,000.

Jonathan Athow, the ONS's deputy national statistician for economic statistics, told the BBC there had been a "sharp increase" in those out of work and job hunting since March.

"Overall employment is down about half a million since the pandemic began and there are particular groups who seem to be most affected, young people in particular.

"(Of those out of work) about 300,000 are aged 16-24, so about 60 percent of the fall in employment... that's really disproportionate," he added.

Meanwhile, the number claiming work related benefits hit 2.7 million in September, an increase of 1.5 million since the beginning of the pandemic in March.

Also, a Citibank analysis has suggested that the unemployment rate could hit 8.5 percent in the first half of 2021, a level not seen since the early 1990s.