Analysis: As corporate job cuts mount, just how bad could it get?

Yesterday's job figures were grim but there's a clear sense that they are going to get even worse.

Big companies have been slashing thousands of positions in the last few weeks (see table). The latest 35,000 announced by HSBC today.

Last week London listed Centrica and Johnson Matthey also reached for the axe.

And as the furlough scheme unwinds, more seem inevitable.

According to the Financial Times, which has tallied up company job cut announcements since March, nearly 100,000 have been unveiled so far.

The job cuts issue is said to have caused a rift at the top of government, with chancellor Rishi Sunak concerned that the Prime Minister’s reluctance to end lockdown caused more economic pain than was necessary.

Airlines and leisure company staff have so far been the worst affected.

Yesterday unemployment stayed at 3.9% in April, the same rate as March, but economists expect it to get much worse.

Craig Erlam at Oanda said: “Unemployment remained at 3.9% but that's only because the furlough scheme is currently masking the huge number of redundancies that will inevitably follow in the months ahead as it draws to a close. Only once those numbers start to become clear will we understand the true extent of the damage. “

The Office for National Statistics figures will weigh heavily on ministers as they consider whether to ease the two-metre social distancing rule, one of the main barriers to fully reopening the economy.

The next potential easing of the lockdown in England could take place on July 4 if the coronavirus outbreak is under control, with pubs and restaurants in line to reopen.

Challenged about the rule in the Commons, Johnson said: “I am determined to make life as easy as possible for our retailers, for our hospitality industry, but we must defeat this virus.”

Only time will tell.