One in four Britons fear losing their jobs as recession hits

People in Britain are increasingly worried about losing their jobs as the country’s economy buckles under the pressure of the coronavirus pandemic and its deepest recession on record, a survey revealed on Wednesday.

The British economy is struggling to cope with the impact of the virus as the lockdown halted almost every sector in the second quarter of the year and is only starting to recover now.

A survey carried out by Kantar said that 42% of respondents said their job was less safe than it was a year ago, an increase of five percentage points from July.

The survey also found that people no longer believed the government was lifting coronavirus restrictions too quickly.

UK economic output shrank by 20.4% in the second quarter of 2020, the worst quarterly slump on record according to government figures released on Wednesday.

Employment in Britain also recorded its largest fall since 2009 in the April-June period, according to official data published on Tuesday.

"The larger contraction primarily reflects how lockdown measures have been in place for a larger part of this period in the UK," the Office for National Statistics said.

"Today's figures confirm that hard times are here," UK finance minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement. "Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs, and sadly in the coming months many more will. But while there are difficult choices to be made ahead, we will get through this, and I can assure people that nobody will be left without hope or opportunity."