The Treasury Minister has rubbished radio reports that government will directly employ more people if unemployment rises sharply.

Alfred Cannan has warned that the jobless figure could rise significantly with the ending of Covid support schemes.

Manx Radio reported that Mr Cannan has suggested government could start directly employing more people, if unemployment rates in the island get too high.

But he told the Examiner that in fact the suggestion was to create winter work schemes should unemployment rise sharply.

Mr Cannan said: ’Was unemployment to rise significantly to 1,500 or more then we may consider creating some form of winter work schemes to provide people with an income.

’This would not be employing more people on the government payroll.’

Registered unemployment rose significantly during lockdown to a peak of 1,350.

It currently stands at 881, down 36% on the April high.

Launching his economic recovery plan last week, the Treasury Minister said the downturn in the Manx economy from Covid-19 is expected to be harder than the 2008 global recession.

And he said that a full recovery may take until the first quarter of next year at the earliest.

Mr Cannan said the island has not seen, as the UK has, long-established businesses making significant redundancies.

But it must remain alive to the risk that difficult economic conditions are ahead.

He told the Examiner that the unemployment figure is likely to be higher than the official number of 881 as some people will choose not to register for social welfare.

Others have assets they can fall back on should they lost their job.