UK jobs market brushes aside end of salary support scheme

By PAN PYLAS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s jobs market appears to have brushed aside the ending of a salary support scheme that supported millions of jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. The Office for National Statistics found Tuesday that the number of workers on payroll rose by a record 257,000 in November to a record 29.4 million. Despite the buoyant jobs news, the Bank of England is not expected to raise interest rates on Thursday for the first time since the pandemic began in early 2020, amid concerns over the rapid spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. The emergence of omicron over the past couple of weeks has created renewed uncertainty over the economic outlook.