According to the Office for National Statistics: "Central government tax and National Insurance receipts (combined) in the financial year ending (FYE) March 2021 were £670.0 billion, a fall of £32.7 billion (or 4.7%) compared with the same period a year earlier. Government support for individuals and businesses during the pandemic contributed to an increase of £204.1 billion (or 27.6%) in central government day-to-day (or current) spending to £942.7 billion.
"As a result of these low receipts and high expenditure, provisional estimates indicate that in 12 months ending March 2021, the public sector borrowed £300.3 billion, equivalent to 14.3% of the UK's gross domestic product (GDP)."
All in all 56,000 fewer people were in payrolled employment in March 2021 compared with February 2021. The UK employment rate was estimated at 75.1%, 1.4% lower than a year earlier and 0.1% lower than the previous quarter.
The UK unemployment rate was estimated at 4.9%, 0.9 % higher than a year earlier but 0.1 % lower than the previous quarter. About 2.2 million people, or 6.5% of all workers, could be unemployed at the end of 2021, the government's spending watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility says. See graph.
The UK economic inactivity rate was estimated at 20.9%, 0.7 % higher than a year earlier and 0.2 % higher than the previous quarter.
The total number of weekly hours worked was 959.9 million, down 92.3 million hours on the same period the previous year and down 20.1 million hours compared with the previous quarter.
Most worrying was the fact that there were an estimated 607,000 job vacancies in January to March 2021, down an incredible 22.7% compared with a year ago.
Source:ONS