Industrial heartlands are at the sharp end of a surge in job losses, fuelling fears that the lockdown is undermining the government’s pledge to level up the economy.
Workers are being made redundant in large numbers and vacancies are shrinking across the country but areas that were struggling before the crisis have been disproportionately hit, according to the Institute for Employment Studies.
Researchers analysed the number of unemployed people per vacancy in each region. The most up-do-date information from the Office for National Statistics suggests that the worst affected areas are ex-industrial towns, covering the central belt of Scotland, parts of Wales and of the north of England.
In findings that lay bare the depth of damage to deprived areas, there are close to 12
