LONDON (Reuters) - The total volume of online job adverts in Britain increased to just over 50% of their 2019 average in the week to July 17, edging up from recent lows, the Office for National Statistics said on Thursday.

“The current level is higher than the lockdown low point of 42%, reached on May 1,” the ONS said, citing figures provided by Adzuna, an online job search engine.

The ONS said last week that the number of employees on company payrolls slumped by 649,000 between March and June, but the pace of decline slowed sharply in recent weeks. Britain’s budget forecasters say the jobless rate could go above 10% later this year as the government pares back its job retention scheme.