The UK unemployment rate was estimated at 5%, 1.2 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 0.4 percentage points lower than the previous quarter.
The total number of weekly hours worked was 979.9 million, down 74.2 million hours on the same period in 2020. The redundancy rate reached a record high of 14.2 per thousand people.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, commented: “This is a reminder, not that it is needed, that we have been hit hardest by this.
“Unless we want to see unemployment in our sector rise even further, we need more support to keep businesses alive and these jobs secure. The VAT cut and business rates holiday must be extended to give employers some breathing room to keep jobs safe.
“It is vital that we have a clear exit strategy and a route map to recovery as soon as possible. Hospitality can be the key to jobs and skills for young people and we can plug the gaps left by retail and help revitalise the economy. We can only do this with the right support to see us through the crisis, though.”