Anyone hunting for signs of a looming UK recession was on Friday spoilt for choice. GDP growth ground to a halt in the second quarter, the economy’s worst performance since 1992, while Halifax Estate Agents announced the closure of a quarter of its branches. In a moribund housing market, many estate agents will be thinking of unemployment insurance. They will not be alone in finding that underwriters are becoming pickier, just as demand for policies guaranteeing fixed monthly payments for up to a year in the event of redundancy is surging. Thousands of City workers face a 400 per cent jump in redundancy insurance premiums, and that’s if they’re lucky. Some brokers say underwriters are blacklisting applicants from banks seen as likely to suffer large-scale job losses. As a lead indicator for the economy, that takes some beating.

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