The government has released stats on the amount of Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) claims made up to 14 January 2021. The number of employments furloughed increased gradually and peaked at 8.9 million on 8 May 2020. After the early May peak, the number of employments furloughed decreased slowly, before a fall of around 670,000 employments between the end of May and the start of June.
Latest figures show that the number of employments furloughed increased by 1.3 million at the start of November and increased further to a peak of 4.1 million on 11 November before falling back slightly to 3.9 million employments furloughed at 30 November.
Furloughing of staff in the wholesale and retail sector peaked on 24 April at 1.9 million employments furloughed. 37% of employers had staff furloughed at 30 November under CJRS and 13% of employments were furloughed. Provisional estimates show 36% of employers had staff furloughed at 31 December under CJRS and 13% of employments were furloughed.
At 30 November, the 25 to 34 age band continued to have the highest number of claimants for both females and males, 429,300 and 430,300 respectively. These figures dropped by 421,100 and 419,000 respectively at 31 December. The under 18 age band had the highest take up rate for both females and males, 41% and 30% respectively at 31 November.
Across all countries and regions, at both 30 November and 31 December, the accommodation and food services sector had the highest number of employments furloughed. This was followed by the wholesale and retail sector.
Commenting on the latest statistics from HMRC on usage of the government’s Job Retention Scheme up until 31 December 2020, BCC Co-Executive Director Hannah Essex said:
“With the furlough scheme providing a lifeline to millions of employees across the economy, further action will be needed in order to avoid a damaging cliff edge for jobs and livelihoods after the scheme ends in just a couple of months.
“The government must learn lessons from last October, where the delay in extending the scheme at a time of tightening restrictions helped drive redundancies to a record high.
“Therefore, ministers should commit immediately to keeping the furlough scheme in place until a full opening of the economy is possible and at least until the end of July 2021. Only with certainty on the future of government support can businesses communities plan ahead and look to restart, rebuild and renew.”
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