This is the thirty-sixth of a series of bulletins produced by ISE to update members on key data and policy on Covid-19. This covers the period 26/11/2020-02/12/2020.

You can access all of the Covid-19 bulletins on ISE insights.

Latest Covid-19 data

Data taken from Wikipedia and from the government’s Covid-19 dashboard.

The UK has now had over 1.6 million identified Covid-19 cases and 69,752 deaths (with Covid on the death certificate). The R rate is estimated to be between 0.9 and 1 with the daily infection rate falling by -2%-0%. It is looking like the second lockdown has worked and that the number of new cases has peaked. However, the number of deaths is a lagging indicator and is continuing to trend upwards.

Covid news

• The full national lockdown has ended and England moves into tiered restrictions for different areas. Boris Johnson says that this is not a return to normality. The government has produced guidance setting out what people can and cannot do in these tiers.
• Restrictions will be eased over the Christmas period. But experts have doubts as to whether this is really a good idea.
• The UK has approved the Pfizer vaccination and will start to roll it out before Christmas.
• There are plans to allow shops 24 hour opening to recoup Covid losses.

Education

• New measures have been announced to ensure that the GCSE and A level exams can go ahead in England.
• New research has been published looking at how Further Education Colleges have dealt with Covid. Universities are beginning mass testing programmes to allow students to go home for Christmas. Labour argues that the government needs to stagger students return in January.
• Universities have been fielding a variety of new complaints during Covid. Other students at Manchester University have taken a more direct approach by going on rent strike over Covid restrictions and have won a 30% rent cut.
• A global pandemic and its aftermath. The way forward for career guidance.

The economy

• Controversy has erupted about the media’s reporting of economic issues. Economists argue that it is inappropriate and there is a need for a greater level of economic literacy amongst journalists.
• The economic impact of Covid-19 has varied substantially by geography.
• Commentary on Rishi Sunak’s spending review continues with Labour’s Professor Prem Sikka describing it as ‘austerity light’.

The labour market

• Twice as many people were made redundant in October as last year.
• The current crisis is likely to increase the need for retraining, but there are concerns about whether the training and retaining opportunities are really there.
• The crisis seems to be exacerbating existing inequalities in society with 700,000 people driven into poverty and ongoing concerns about the number of people who are excluded from government support under the new arrangements.
• What’s next for remote working?

The student labour market

• How employers have adapted their student recruitment during Covid.
• Where now for apprenticeships? Asks Tristram Hooley on ISE: Insights.
• Stephen Isherwood sounds a note of cautious optimism about the graduate labour market. While Charlie Ball provides his graduate labour market.
• New research has emerged on Diversity & Inclusion in the student labour market this week. The ISE podcast focuses on understanding student attitudes to Diversity and Inclusion. While new research from HESA suggests that there is an ethnic job satisfaction gap. Alan Bourne argues that it is time to close the gap between intent and action on diversity.

Student recruitment and development

• How to work with schools during the lockdowns and restrictions.

Employer insights

Insights gathered from ISE employer ‘town halls’ and other interactions over the last week.

• It has been a challenging year for many employers, but the experience has been quite varied. While some firms are collapsing, others have thrived. In general, there is optimism that things are looking up and that recruitment numbers will be up from what was predicted in September.
• Most employers are reporting a huge increase in applications. A lot of these are ‘spray and pray’ applications and not necessarily of very high quality. Some students are chasing applications very hard and, in some cases, becoming aggressive. Firms are often taking the decision to terminate these applications.
• The process of graduate recruitment is moving faster than usual, in part because of the high volumes of applicants.
• Organisations are still unsure that they will be able to run face-to-face internships this year. Most are focusing on virtual or blended internships.
• There are ongoing concerns from employers about university virtual careers fairs. Many of them are not delivering the level of engagement needed.
• There are also some concerns that it has become more difficult to reach school and college leavers as schools are more difficult to get into.
• Some firms expect that the shift to online assessment centres and inductions will become permanent.