Just a bit more context on these figures. If these 950,000 new claims are flows into unemployment then that means UK unemployment has risen by about 71% in a fortnight. /1 https://twitter.com/TorstenBell/status/1245404845114261504

If reflected in the ILO unemployment numbers (latest 1.34m), that means we're already 70% of the way (2.29m) to peak unemployment in the Financial Crisis (2.71m). /2

And by the same logic, would put the unemployment rate today at around 6.7%, a rise of around 2.8%pts probably in under a month. For context, the fastest quarterly rise in unemployment rate before today was 0.9%pts. This really is breaking records in a big way.

Finally there's about 28 million households in the UK. An extra million claims to UC, probably means about 3-4% of households have moved from being in work to to being workless. /4

Let's hope this doesn't get much worse, and let's hope when the recovery comes that it is swift. Also another call to employers - please, please furlough employees - it's better for your business, better for your employees, their living standards and better for the economy 5/5