Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and government restrictions in the United Kingdom, 83 percent of business leaders within the eating and drinking out sector had to furlough over 90 percent of their staff in 2020. Only one percent of survey respondents did not have to temporarily dismiss any of their employees.

By the end of the UK's job retention scheme, which ran from April 2020, to September 2021, approximately 11.7 million jobs, from 1.3 million different employers, were furloughed in the United Kingdom. The day with the most jobs furloughed at once was May 8, 2020, when 8.86 million jobs were on the job retention scheme. The scheme, introduced in response to the economic damage caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, covered 80 percent of an employees' usual monthly wage, up to 2,500 British pounds a month. How much did the scheme cost? The UK government spent approximately 70 billion British pounds on the job retention scheme. Due to spending commitments such as this, as well as depressed revenue sources, UK government finances took a severe hit in the 2020/21 financial year. Government borrowing was approximately 333 billion pounds in 2020/21, while government debt as a share of GDP shot up from 80.3 percent in 2018/19, to 96.5 percent by 2020/21. Getting this debt down has proven difficult in subsequent financial years, with high inflation, war in Ukraine, and Cost of Living Crisis putting even more pressure on public finances. Popular scheme may not be enough to save Sunak The current Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, held the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer throughout the duration of the furlough scheme. While this scheme and Sunak himself were popular for much of that time, Sunak has since seen his popularity tumble. Shortly after succeeding Liz Truss as Prime Minister in October 2021, Sunak was seen by 30 percent of people as being the best person for his job, while his net favorability rating was around -19 percent. By May 2024, just before he announced the 2024 general election, just 19 percent of people thought he made the best Prime Minister, and his net favorability rating had fallen to -51 percent.

The job retention scheme in the United Kingdom ended on September 30, 2021, with approximately 1.16 million jobs still on furlough at its conclusion. In May 2020 the number of jobs furloughed peaked at over 8.8 million. As a cumulative total there were around 11.7 million jobs furloughed in the since the introduction of the scheme in March 2020.

The indicators and analysis presented in this bulletin are based on responses from the new voluntary fortnightly business survey, which captures businesses responses on how their turnover, workforce prices, trade and business resilience have been affected in the two week reference period. These data relate to the period 6 April 2020 to 19 April 2020.

Over 2.25 million jobs in the United Kingdom's wholesale and retail sector were furloughed on the UK's job retention scheme between April 2020 and September 2021, with a further 2.13 million thousand accommodation and food services jobs also furloughed. These two sectors were the most vulnerable to the UK's Coronavirus lockdowns, with manufacturing and administrative support work also haivng relatively high numbers furloughed.

In January 2021, approximately 9.58 million jobs in Europe's three largest economies were being supported by temporary employment schemes, with the UK's job retention scheme supporting approximately 4.88 million jobs, France's Chômage partiel scheme 2.1 million, while 2.6 million workers were on Germany's Kurzarbeit system. Although some of these partial employment mechanisms were already in place before the COVID-19 pandemic, their usage accelerated considerably after the first Coronavirus lockdowns in Spring 2020. How much will this cost European governments? Early on in the pandemic, European governments moved swiftly to limit the damage that the Coronavirus pandemic would cause to the labor market. The spectre of mass unemployment, which would put a huge strain on European benefit systems anyway, was enough to encourage significant government spending and intervention. To this end, the European Union made 100 billion Euros of loans available through it's unemployment support fund (SURE). As of March 2021, Italy had received 20.95 billion Euros in loans from the SURE mechanism, and is set to be loaned 27.4 billion Euros overall. Spain and Poland will receive the second and third highest amount from the plan, at 21.3 billion, and 15.06 billion Euros respectively. What about the UK? The United Kingdom is not involved in the European Union's SURE scheme, but has also paid substantial amounts of money to keep unemployment at bay. As of January 31, 2021, there had been more than 11.2 million jobs furloughed on the UK's job retention scheme. By this date, the expenditure of this measure had reached 53.8 billion British pounds, with this figure expected to increase further, following the extension of the scheme to September 2021.

This dataset represents employment, occupation and industry data from Census 2021 by a usual resident’s passport held.

Occupation is classified using the Standard Occupation Classification 2020 version. Industry is classified using the Standard Industrial Classifications 2007 version.

Population estimates in this spreadsheet are individually rounded to the nearest 5 and percentages to 1 decimal place. Estimates may not sum due to this rounding.

Quality information can be found here

Census 2021 took place during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a period of unparalleled and rapid change; the national lockdown, associated guidance and furlough measures will have affected the labour market topic. For more information please refer to this article

Economically active

People aged 16 years and over who are an active participant in the labour market between 15 and 21 March 2021, as they were:

• in employment as an employee or self-employed
• unemployed, but looking for work and could start within two weeks
• unemployed, but waiting to start a job that has been offered and accepted

Economically inactive

People aged 16 years and over who did not have a job between 15 and 21 March 2021 and had not looked for work between 22 February and 21 March 2021 or could not start work within two weeks.

Age

This is someone’s age on their last birthday on Census Day, 21 March 2021 in England and Wales.

Disabled

People who assessed their day-to-day activities as limited by long-term physical or mental health conditions or illnesses are considered disabled. This definition of a disabled person meets the harmonised standard for measuring disability and is in line with the Equality Act (2010).

For more definitions please check this summary glossary.

BackgroundLong-term health conditions can affect labour market outcomes. COVID-19 may have increased labour market inequalities, e.g. due to restricted opportunities for clinically vulnerable people. Evaluating COVID-19’s impact could help target support.AimTo quantify the effect of several long-term conditions on UK labour market outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic and compare them to pre-pandemic outcomes.MethodsThe Understanding Society COVID-19 survey collected responses from around 20,000 UK residents in nine waves from April 2020-September 2021. Participants employed in January/February 2020 with a variety of long-term conditions were matched with people without the condition but with similar baseline characteristics. Models estimated probability of employment, hours worked and earnings. We compared these results with results from a two-year pre-pandemic period. We also modelled probability of furlough and home-working frequency during COVID-19.ResultsMost conditions (asthma, arthritis, emotional/nervous/psychiatric problems, vascular/pulmonary/liver conditions, epilepsy) were associated with reduced employment probability and/or hours worked during COVID-19, but not pre-pandemic. Furlough was more likely for people with pulmonary conditions. People with arthritis and cancer were slower to return to in-person working. Few effects were seen for earnings.ConclusionCOVID-19 had a disproportionate impact on people with long-term conditions’ labour market outcomes.

According to a survey conducted among 2,000 adults in the United Kingdom (UK), in December 2023, people were generally pessimistic about the prospects of buying a residential property. Asked whether they think now is the time to buy, approximately 16 percent of respondents said they agree, while 41 percent said they disagree. In contrast, between June 2020 and September 2021, the opposite trend was observed. Some of the reasons had to do with policies introduced in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, such as freeze of the income tax thresholds, extension of the furlough scheme, stamp duty holiday, the mortgage guarantee scheme, and the low mortgage rates.

Global hotel company Hilton employed approximately 181 thousand people globally in 2024. The 2020 decline in employees was attributed to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which resulted in temporary furloughs and organizational changes in its global operations. The company's employee count surpassed pre-pandemic levels in 2023. Leading hotel chains worldwide Hilton is arguably one of the most well-known hotel chains across the globe. The company accounted for 7,277 properties worldwide in 2023, thereby ranking fourth globally among other large hotel chains such as the Wyndham Hotel Group and Marriott International. The chain with the highest number of establishments is the Wyndham Hotel Group, with over nine thousand units in its worldwide portfolio in 2023. Which hotel chain has the highest brand value? Some of the hotel brands owned by Hilton Worldwide include Hampton, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, and Waldorf Astoria. Hilton Hotels & Resorts recorded the highest hotel brand value in 2023, valuing at 11.75 billion U.S. dollars. Comparatively, competitor Hyatt ranked second, with a brand value of 6.07 billion U.S. dollars in the same year.