Furlough scheme rides to the rescue again as joblessness surges

Chancellor Rishi Sunak consulted with unions and employers to create the scheme – the government needs to do that more often if it is to heal the economic wounds caused by the pandemic, writes James Moore

Unemployment is rising but it would have been worse without the furlough scheme (Getty)

It was possible to find one or two chinks of light amid the grim jobs data put out by the Office for National Statistics.

Take vacancies. From September to November they were up by 110,000 compared to the previous three months, despite the fact that Covid-19 restrictions were tightening during the period under consideration (part of which was under lockdown)

Overall hours worked also increased. From August to October, the total number came out at 960 million a week, an increase of 104.9 million compared with the previous three months.