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No-deal Brexit could mean 'one million job losses'

The potential toll on employment comes on top of the pressure companies on both sides are already facing due to the coronavirus. Photo: Reuters/John Sibley
The potential toll on employment comes on top of the pressure companies on both sides are already facing due to the coronavirus. Photo: Reuters/John Sibley

A total of one million jobs are at risk globally if there is a no-deal Brexit, according to new research seen by the Financial Times.

A report by the Halle Institute for Economic Research, updating a dispatch from February last year, showed about 700,000 jobs would be at risk for EU companies that export to Britain if the UK and Brussels continue to butt heads over a deal.

That total rises to a million when you factor in companies outside of the UK, according to the German research institute.

The paper cited is still in peer review stage, and is due to be published in the next few weeks, according to the FT.

The potential toll on employment comes on top of the pressure companies on both sides are already facing due to the coronavirus.

Economists have predicted that job losses will spike as the government’s Job Retention Scheme tapers off in October, despite new measures introduced ahead of the winter.

Trade talks have been at an impasse as the clock is ticking to the final deadline.

Breaking down the total cited by the report, the FT said Germany would take the biggest hit, predicting 176,000 job losses if the pair fail to reach a deal.

France, Poland and Italy would be similarly hit, with a respective loss of 80,000, 78,000 and 72,000 jobs.

Outside of Europe, China would face the highest level of job cuts.

The threat of potential job losses isn’t new. In July, more than 100 companies, business people and trade organisations wrote to prime minister Boris Johnson in the hope of hammering home the threat to business.

The warning stated that barriers to business between the pair would put even more people out of work.

The warning came within hours of two major employers saying they would slash 6,700 jobs in the UK due to the pandemic.

Data has shown that the UK has so far shed more than 750,000 due to the pandemic.

READ MORE: CBI calls for Brexit deal as decline in private sector activity slows