The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned that the country’s economy is unlikely to return to its pre-COVID-19 scale before the end of 2022 and that unemployment appears to rise sharply in the first half of next year.
The union expected the British economy to contract by a record high of 11.1% this year as a result of the pandemic before growing 6% next year and 5.2% during 2022.
Unemployment is expected to reach a peak of 2.51 million people, or 7.3% of the workforce, in the second quarter of next year after the end of the government aid program.