Unemployment rate: How many people are out of work?

Employers are cutting tens of thousands of jobs as Covid-19 continues to hit the economy.

The government's furlough scheme has slowed down the number of redundancies - but what are the prospects for the coming year?

How many people are unemployed?

The most widely used measure is the unemployment rate. It counts how many people can work and want a job but cannot find one.

The most recent unemployment rate - for September to November - was 5.0% , according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

That is an increase of 0.6% over the previous three months and means that 1.72 million people were unemployed.

Businesses such as shops, bars, travel, and entertainment companies have had to close because of coronavirus lockdowns. Many have decided that they can't afford to keep all their workers. That is why there was a record number of redundancies - 395,000 - in the period from September to November.

October was meant to be the last month of furlough, but after an England-wide lockdown was announced in November, it was extended for five more months.

This meaning many businesses could keep their staff by furloughing them instead of making them redundant. Nearly 10 million people were furloughed between the start of the scheme and 13 December.

The industries which have seen the biggest impact from COVID restrictions and lockdowns have seen the biggest fall in employment, too. Hotels and restaurants, shops and entertainment have all seen large numbers of jobs lost.