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I lost my job in the pandemic: three stories

In October, figures revealed unemployment in the UK has risen to its highest level in more than three years, to 4.5 percent - compared with 4.1 percent in the previous quarter. The Office for National Statistics also said that during the Coronavirus pandemic, redundancies rose to their highest level since 2009.

Over the past six months Jess Quayle from 大象传媒 Radio 4’s You and Yours has been following the stories of some of those people who are already out of work. Here are three people's first-hand experiences of losing work because of the pandemic.

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鈥淚 was given two days鈥� notice鈥�

Paul Fryett, 52, lives with his partner Nicola, seven-year-old son Alfie, and Elsie who was born in July.

I checked my phone and I had an email just saying they needed to make redundancies and that I was going to be one. I was given two days鈥� notice.
Paul Fryett

When lockdown started Paul was working as a dental technician. He was put on furlough straight away and spent three months at home.

Just a few weeks after Elsie was born, he got the worst possible news. “I checked my phone and I had an email just saying they needed to make redundancies and that I was going to be one. I was given two days’ notice.”

With his partner Nicola, who’s a trainee midwife, on maternity leave, it was a real blow. “I knew really that it was going to be really hard finding something else. I felt bad that home life would be a lot more difficult. We’re not buying anything for ourselves anymore, if we have to, we just get things for the kids.”

Paul and Nicola applied for Universal Credit while he started looking for work. “I’ve applied for a taster at a Quorn factory, and a porter at a local hospital, because in the dental trade there doesn’t seem to be anything.”

Paul says he often he hasn’t heard back from the jobs he’s applied for.

Paul Fryett, partner Nicola, Alfie and Elsie.

New training

In September Paul started a course at his local college, in the hope of training to be an occupational therapist. For Paul it marks a new beginning “I wish I’d looked at doing something like this a long time ago. I always regretted not going to University after leaving school.”

It’s a steep learning curve and Paul isn’t used to using computers - but with his partner Nicola’s help he’s well on the way. “Sometimes having to go through things, you can come out of it the other end with something different and a lot better. If I can get through this and get myself into University it’ll be something brilliant to come out of this.”

According to the Institute for Employment Studies there are now more than three people chasing every job vacancy in the UK. Before the Coronavirus pandemic it was much lower.

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Jodie was placed on furlough and then lost her job in the summer.

鈥淚t makes you feel like what you do isn鈥檛 valuable鈥�

Jodie, 41, was working in communications for a charity when the lockdown happened. Like Paul, she was placed on furlough but come the summer she had lost her job. She was living in a house-share in Birmingham but she decided to move home to the Wirral to live with her mum. “I then found myself not only losing my job, but losing my normal environment, my house-mate, my home. It makes you feel like what you do isn’t that valuable, it’s been very hard not to take it personally.”

It is really exhausting; putting yourself in that rejection environment over and over again it can be a bit of a battering on the ego and confidence.
Jodie on the process of applying for roles and going for interviews.

Jodie is a musician in her spare time, and spent some of lockdown writing music as well as applying for jobs. “I think I’ve applied for like 20 jobs in the past few weeks.” She got a couple of interviews, but was not successful. “It is really exhausting; putting yourself in that rejection environment over and over again it can be a bit of a battering on the ego and confidence.”

Jodie managed to secure some freelance work until Christmas, which gives her the chance to take much needed break. “It’s been such a bonkers year; I keep thinking surely nothing else could go wrong.” She says she hopes to have a new job come 2021.

Matt has had to start all over again building up his business.

鈥淚t鈥檚 so unfair鈥�

Matt is a warehouse manager from Solihull. He had just taken up a new job in March, after working for the same company for 16 years. He lives in a shared ownership house and had to shield during lockdown because he’s in a high risk category. He was born with a genetic blood disorder which affects his immune system.

Straight away you鈥檙e thinking you鈥檙e going to have no chance, which adds to the hopelessness of the situation.
Matt on applying for new jobs.

Matt missed the cut-off for his new employers to be able to claim furlough and was eventually laid off. “The biggest thing that’s been going round my head is how unfair the whole situation is. It’s a dent to your self-confidence and self-worth.”

He started applying for jobs in August, but with so many people out of work he’s told that there are too many people applying for jobs.
“Straight away you’re thinking you’re going to have no chance, which adds to the hopelessness of the situation.”

Job Offer

Later in the summer he got a job offer through a member of his family and started straight away. “It’s at a tool hire company, basically the bottom of the ladder. I’ve been trying really hard not to compare it to the salary I’ve lost. I was on 30k, this one is 20k."

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful or a bit stuck up, I am thankful to be working again. I don’t think the job’s beneath me. It’s more the effort to build myself up, that’s been taken away, and that sticks in my throat.”

The new job does make money easier though. “I’m at the point where I can actually start looking forward. I’m not constantly accruing debt and short. It’s not a desperate situation anymore. There’s definitely a light at the end of the tunnel now.”

You can listen to Matt’s story here on You and Yours.

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