Covid bulletin #34

Nov 19, 2020 | Sector & policy

This is the thirty-fourth of a series of bulletins produced by ISE to update members on key data and policy on Covid-19. This covers the period 12/11/2020-18/11/2020.

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 1.4 million identified Covid-19 cases and 63,873 deaths (with Covid on the death certificate). The R rate is estimated to be between 1 and 1.2 with the daily infection rate growing by 1-3%. The UK’s second wave is continuing but its rate of growth may be slowing down. However, the weekly number of cases and deaths has continued to increase.

Covid news

There has continued to be good news about the launch of new vaccines. In addition to the vaccines there are also a range of other developments that should help to bring the pandemic under control. However, this does not mean that we will be back to normal by the spring, particularly as many people are viewing Covid as presenting less of a personal risk than they did in March.
The lockdown continues with scientists advising people to prepare for a low key Christmas.

Education

Schools have been trying to preserve careers education and guidance during the pandemic.

The economy

The UK economy grew by 15.5% between July and September. But the second lockdown is likely to substantially slow growth during the final quarter of the year.
There are concerns about the impact of the lockdown on the retail and hospitality sectors.

The labour market

This figure uses data from the Office for National Statistics to set out the proportion of the working population who are unemployed and the proportion of young people who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET)

The student labour market

Data taken from the ISE recruitment survey.

The ISE recruitment survey has been launched revealing three key trends: (1) recruitment has dramatically changed; (2) student recruitment has declines, but not collapsed; and (3) the future is challenging.
The number of graduates recruited to graduate schemes has dropped by 12%. The issues in the graduate labour market are very sectorial with weak demand for labour from retail and other sectors that would normally increase hiring at this time of year, and increase in the number of graduates going into teaching, and ongoing challenges in recruiting IT and engineering graduates. Further information on the graduate labour market is offered in Charlie Ball’s weekly update.
The drop in the hiring of interns and placement students is substantial and will cause problems for universities as well as graduates and businesses.
The Kickstart scheme has successfully launched with an estimated 19,000 young people starting in Kickstart funded roles over the last month. But, there is a need for more action on the youth employment crisis.