The ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Britain's job market has been highlighted by new figures from the Office for National Statistics, or ONS, showing that unemployment levels in the three months to December were at their highest for nearly five years.

The statistics reveal that, from October to December, 1.74 million people were unemployed, an increase of 454,000 on the same period a year earlier, and the most severely affected age bracket was those aged under 25.

However, Jonathan Athow, ONS deputy national statistician for economic statistics, told the BBC that it was hard to establish a clear picture of what was going on in the employment market because of the ongoing furlough program, which, it is thought, currently supports up to 6 million people, and whose short-term future is currently unclear.

"There is a huge amount of uncertainty about what will happen to (furloughed workers) when that scheme ends," he added.

The furlough program is currently scheduled to finish at the end of April, but it could be extended at the start of next month, when Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak presents his budget to the House of Commons. After Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled his plans to get the United Kingdom out of lockdown on Monday, there is a growing feeling that furlough will continue for a while yet.

"At the budget next week I will set out the next stage of our Plan for Jobs, and the support we'll provide through the remainder of the pandemic and our recovery," said Sunak.

Tej Parikh, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, told The Guardian that lockdown restrictions in the winter had made it a particularly difficult period for the economy, and that the unemployment figures would have been even worse had it not been for furlough.

"Tight restrictions over the winter months will have eaten into many businesses' reserves, forcing them into difficult decisions on their staff," he said. "Meanwhile, cash-strapped firms have relied on the furlough scheme to help retain employees, and, without it, unemployment would be significantly higher."

Matthew Percival, from the Confederation of British Industry, also spoke of the importance of the furlough program and urged Sunak to keep it in place, along with calling for other tax-related measures to help businesses weather the storm.

"With tough decisions on jobs being taken daily, employers need the budget to provide further business support until the economy is fully reopen," he said.

A survey published on Monday by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development painted a more encouraging picture in terms of future recruitment, with a wide range of businesses saying they hope to be hiring more staff soon, but the Bank of England has previously forecast that unemployment could peak at 7.8 percent later in the year.