The most recent figures also show redundancies have reached a record high as the total unemployment rate edges towards 5%
More then three quarters of a million people have dropped off company payrolls since March
The number of UK workers on payrolls has now fallen by 782,000 between March and October due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
In the three months to September 2020, the most recent figures in the report, redundancies reached a record high of 314,000 – up 181,000 on the quarter.
The overall UK unemployment rate over the same period was 4.8%, up 0.9 percentage points on the same period last year and 0.7 points on the previous quarter.
An estimated 1.62 million people were unemployed, the ONS said, 318,000 more than a year earlier and 243,000 more than the previous quarter.
But there was a sliver of good news among all the gloom – with available vacancies rising 146,000 to 525,000 compared to the three months before.
Average pay for those who have kept their jobs increased 1.9% (excluding bonuses).
