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.

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.

As of November 2021 the overall cost of the United Kingdom's job retention scheme was 70 billion British pounds. The number of jobs furloughed on the scheme has been steadily declining since May 2020, with around 2.4 million jobs still in furlough by the end of October 2020.

An overview of the similarities and differences between the fortnightly BICS furlough estimates and HMRC’s CJRS data, over the period 1 May to 31 July 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.

Labour market flows of people who have been furloughed. Experimental statistics using data from the Labour Force Survey (UK) and Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (Great Britain) to understand the individual and labour market characteristics of people who have been furloughed; summary statistics and model results.

Furlough jobs, jobs excluding furlough, gross value added (GVA), output per job including furlough, output per job excluding furlough.

At the end of the job retention scheme in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2021 there were 527.2 thousand females and 615.1 thousand males still on furlough with a further 17 thousand people of unknown gender also covered by the measure.

On September 30, 2021, at the end of the job retention scheme in the United Kingdom, there were approximately 268.6 thousand people aged between 35 and 44 still furloughed, the most of any group. Since July 2020, the age group 25 to 34 has consistently had the most people on furlough, with over 1.3 million of this age group on the job retention scheme at the start of that month.

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.

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.

Compositional and furlough effects from quarterly Labour Force Survey earnings data for the period 2008 to 2021, UK. Experimental estimates.

This statistic presents the distribution of Spanish companies that furloughed employees due to the coronavirus crisis in Spain as of June 2020, by sector. Some 75 percent of the companies in the construction sector had furloughed employees. In contrast, only 37.7 percent of the companies in the sector of information had furloughed employees during the same period.

Skill set of people who have been furloughed: the types of skills furloughed workers think they are good at, would like to improve for their career and use in their current job. Experimental statistics using data from the Labour Force Survey (UK) and Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (Great Britain) to understand the labour market flows of people who have been furloughed; summary statistics and model results.

Graph and download economic data for All Employees, Local Government Education (CES9093161101) from Jan 1955 to Feb 2025 about establishment survey, education, government, employment, and USA.

This dataset provides information about the number of properties, residents, and average property values for Furlough Avenue cross streets in High Point, NC.

This statistic illustrates the sectors that featured the highest number of furloughed professionals due to the coronavirus lockdown in Spain as of April 2020. As of that date, the food and beverage industry experienced the highest number of professionals that were put on furlough as a consequence of the coronavirus outbreak in Spain with more than seven hundred thousand people affected.

This statistic present the distribution of professionals that have been affected by a furlough in Spain as of June 2020, by professional field. The professional field that have been impacted the most through furlough is the hospitality and tourism, with over 81 percent of their professionals affected.