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.

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.

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.

According to a survey of nearly 9,400 businesses in the United Kingdom in the beginning of May 2021, real estate employees were less likely to go into partial or furlough leave compared to the average for all sectors in the United Kingdom (UK) as of May 2021. Additionally, they were more likely to work remotely. Approximately 47.2 percent of the real estate workforce worked remotely instead of their normal place of work, compared to 28.4 percent of the UK workforce.

According to a survey conducted in April 2020, about three percent of respondents who worked in Bali, Indonesia, were laid off by their workplaces due to the economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic. In comparison, 58 percent of the respondents were still working, while the the rest of the respondents had been either furloughed or were not working.

As of January 5, 2021, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia amounted to 779,548 and the number had been increasing since Indonesia had its first COVID-19 case in March 2020. Until January 14, 2021, all Indonesian borders would remain closed to foreign visitors. The Indonesian island heavily relies on tourism and its economy has suffered as a result.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.