MORE than one in five black and ethnic minority workers furloughed during lockdown have since lost their jobs, according to a shocking new report.

The survey by the Resolution Foundation indicates that unemployment is much higher than official figures claim, with young adults and BAME workers hardest hit. 

While the furlough scheme curbed the rise in unemployment during the first phase of the virus, the think tank warned that its winding down is “revealing the true nature of Britain’s jobs crisis.”

The Jobs Jobs Jobs report, published yesterday evening and supported by the Health Foundation charity, found 19 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds who were furloughed have since been made redundant. 

The figure was higher among BAME workers, with the report finding 22 per cent of the 6,061 adults surveyed had become unemployed. 

It follows a study by Hope not Hate reporting that BAME workers were more than twice as likely to have lost their job during the crisis than the national average.

Resolution Foundation senior research and policy analyst Kathleen Henehan warned that the jobs crisis could “last far longer” than the public health crisis, with the report revealing that just 48 per cent of people who lost their jobs have since found work. 

The report also indicated that unemployment rose 7 per cent in September, far higher than the latest official figure of 4.5 per cent in the three months to August.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said that stopping the “devastation of mass unemployment” must be the government’s “top priority.”

She insisted: “Ministers must get to grips with how to stop disproportionate BAME unemployment.

“And they should up the wages guarantee in the Job Support Scheme to 80 per cent to protect jobs in the tough winter ahead.”