The figures for April show the biggest month-on-month jump since records began in 1971, with 856,500 more people claiming unemployment benefits. (Subscribe: https://bit.ly/C4_News_Subscribe)

It could have been much, much worse without the government's furlough scheme which is protecting eight million jobs - for now.

But while an astonishing one in three private sector workers is now being paid, in all or in part, by the state, there are growing numbers of people already out of work, with young people among the hardest hit.

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