Unemployment in Powys has risen by a quarter over the last month as the impact of the coronavirus on people's jobs bites hard.

The number of people claiming unemployment allowance in the county rose from 2,885 in April to 3,650 in May – an increase of 26 per cent – according to Office for National Statistics data.

That means 4.8 per cent of the county's working-age population are now claiming benefits – up by one percentage point from last month's figures.

Last week, it was revealed that the county had seen more than a fifth of its workforce placed on furlough leave during the pandemic, and the UK economy took a similar 20 per cent nosedive.

Although the UK jobless rate remained largely unchanged quarter on quarter at 3.9 per cent in the three months to April, with unemployment at 1.34 million, there are fears that more redundancies could follow as Government's furlough scheme support is withdrawn over the coming months.

The ONS figures showed a decline in hours worked by people in jobs, while jobless claims under Universal Credit jumped 23.3 per cent month on month in May to 2.8 million and soared 125.9 per cent or 1.6 million since March when the UK was placed in lockdown.

ONS deputy national statistician Jonathan Athow said: "The slowdown in the economy is now visibly hitting the labour market, especially in terms of hours worked."

Asked if May unemployment figures could reach around five per cent, Mr Athow said: "That would certainly go in that direction if that 600,000 reduction in payroll goes through into unemployment.

"We haven't quite seen the downturn feed through into unemployment yet."