MNI BRIEF: UK's Sunak Optimistic Over End-Furlough Employment

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak told lawmakers Tuesday that hard data and anecdotal evidence all suggested that the end of the furlough scheme in September has not led to a big rise in joblessness.

Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee members have cited the ending of the furlough scheme, under which the government provided income support to employees still attached to their employers but not working, as a key uncertainty. Sunak said survey data and evidence of no rise in redundancy notices made him "Cautiously optimistic that the employment outcome post the end of furlough will not be anywhere near as bad as people feared."

With job vacancies high, at around 1 million, and a similar number on furlough, a big unknown is whether skills and geographic mismatches will fuel wage rises, with MPC members seemingly divided between those seeing a case to tighten now and those wanting to wait to find out the labour market data unfold.

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