This page contains data and analysis published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) from 6 to 10 July 2020. Go to our live page for the most up-to-date insights on COVID-19.


10 July 2020

Homeless deaths involving COVID-19

Up to 26 June 2020, 16 deaths involving COVID-19 have been identified as people who were homeless. These were all in England; there were none in Wales.

Most of the deaths were men, with an average age of 58 years. This is considerably lower than the average age of death of people involving COVID-19 in the general population, but higher than the average age of death of men who were homeless in 2018 (which was 45 years).

London and the North West had the highest number of deaths of homeless people. This is consistent with the number of deaths from all causes of people who were homeless in each region in 2018 (the most recent figures available). There is a lag in the production of official estimates of deaths of homeless people because many of the deaths are investigated by the coroner.

In 2018, there were 541 deaths of homeless people identified in England and Wales. The number of deaths involving COVID-19 up to 26 June 2020 is similar in scale to the quarterly average over five years of both alcohol-specified deaths and suicides of homeless people.


9 July 2020

Levels of caring for others have risen during lockdown

More people provided help or support to people they don’t live with in April 2020 (the first full month of lockdown), compared with 2017 to 2018. At the same time, levels of poor mental health have risen across both people who provide help or support outside their household and those who do not.

This is according to the Understanding Society Covid-19 Study, which looks at the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and lockdown on the UK population.

In April 2020, almost half (48%) of people in the UK said they provided help or support to someone outside their household. That’s over four times as many as during 2017 to 2018 (11%) (although the data are not directly comparable because the question asked on the two surveys was not exactly the same).

Of those providing help or support to someone outside their household, 32% were helping people who they didn’t help or support before lockdown.

Some of the people who are providing help or support are known as sandwich carers. They are helping, supporting or caring for older relatives as well as children. For sandwich carers who reported being employed through the pandemic, 17% reported working fewer hours due to childcare or informal caring responsibilities during lockdown.

The study also shows that reported levels of poor mental health have increased. This is the same whether people provide help or support for others outside their household or not.

The largest rise in levels of reported poor mental health was for women who provide help or support to people outside their household.


8 July 2020

Homeworking in April 2020

Nearly half (46.6%) of people aged over 16 in employment in the UK did some work from home in April 2020, with 86.0% of those who worked from home doing so because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Women were slightly more likely to work from home than men, and workers aged 25 to 34 years were most likely to work from home at 54.3%. Regionally, workers living in London were most likely to work from home at 57.2%.

Data from 2019 (before the pandemic) showed that less than 30% of the workforce had ever worked from home in their current job, although these figures are taken from a different source so are not directly comparable.

The April figures are the first experimental statistics from our new online Labour Market Survey (LMS) launched at the end of March 2020, a survey of around 18,000 households per quarter.

The LMS is designed to collect similar data to our Labour Force Survey (LFS), but mainly online rather than over the phone or face-to-face interviews. The LFS remains the official source of our headline labour market statistics.


8 July 2020

Labour market, businesses and trade

The latest Economic review includes three articles analysing the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the labour market, businesses and trade.

Early insights of how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic impacted the labour market provides additional analysis on the labour market figures to what was covered in the Labour market overview for June 2020.

The ratio of unemployment to vacancies increased between January and April 2020, indicating growing imbalance between labour supply and labour demand; the increase was driven more by falling demand for labour than by increasing supply.

Business closures and restrictions to non-essential travel caused labour demand to fall, with a large decrease to the number of vacancies.

Insights of the Business Impact of Coronavirus Survey: Wave 2 to Wave 7 provides insights to show how businesses and the economy have evolved so far in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Fewer businesses are reporting lower-than-normal levels of turnover in the latest fortnightly wave than at the height of restrictions in place in April and May. More businesses have reported a pickup in turnover levels in the most recent two-week period, 1 June to 14 June 2020.

The proportion of businesses’ workforce size that has been furloughed has remained fairly stable, with a slight drop in the most recent fortnight.

Impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on UK trade provides additional analysis on the figures for UK trade: April 2020 of both goods and services, which saw notable falls in both exports and imports in the three months to April 2020.

The largest impacts to exporting and importing of businesses were seen in transportation and storage, retail and wholesale, and manufacturing industries, with the biggest challenges faced by businesses being coronavirus-related transport restrictions and increased transportation costs.


7 July 2020

Characteristics of people testing positive for COVID-19

Emerging evidence suggests that infection rates for COVID-19 are lower in two-person households than in larger households.

Our analysis looks at the potential risk factors associated with those who have ever tested positive for COVID-19 during the period 26 April to 27 June 2020.

It examines whether there is any evidence of differences in infection rates for the following characteristics:

  • age, sex and ethnicity
  • among workers
  • household size
  • symptoms
  • those who had contact with others.

There are many factors that could drive differences in the number of people ever testing positive for COVID-19 by household size.

These include secondary transmission of infection within households, different household structures and households having different contact patterns with people outside of the household.


7 July 2020

Labour productivity

In Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2020, the UK’s headline measure of labour productivity, output per hour, fell by 0.6% compared with the same quarter a year ago. However, output per worker fell by 3.1% over the same period, reflecting the impact of “furlough” schemes that significantly reduced the number of hours worked, while the number of workers in the economy remained more stable.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has forced employers and staff to adjust to new working schedules and arrangements, such as working from home, which can affect productivity in different ways.

While output per hour and output per worker are usually closely aligned, we found the government’s furlough scheme has caused employment to stay in line with pre-pandemic levels, whereas hours worked has fallen.

Meanwhile, another measure of productivity, multi-factor productivity, is estimated to have decreased by 2.6% compared with the same quarter a year ago, the lowest growth rate in 11 years. Multi-factor productivity is a measure that takes into account changes to equipment like machinery and software, as well as changes in the characteristics of the labour market. It does not cover the public sector.

While these productivity figures only cover the first week or so of lockdown measures being introduced, we expect further impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on labour market productivity to be revealed in data for the following quarter.


6 July 2020

Map of over 70s living with younger people

More than 85% of deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending 19 June 2020 that mentioned the coronavirus (COVID-19) on the death certificate are for someone aged 70 years or over.

While people in this age group can socially distance to avoid infection, those who live in households with people who are of working age or children may face a greater challenge as parts of the UK emerge from lockdown at different paces.

This challenge to protect more vulnerable members of the households from COVID-19, such as those aged 70 years and older, may become more difficult as younger household members return to work and resume their studies.

Find out how many households in your local area contain people aged 70 years or older living with those aged 60 years or under

Percentage and number of households in a Lower layer Super Output Area (LSOA) where there is someone over 70 years living with someone aged 60 years or under, England and Wales

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