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.

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.

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.

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.

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 presents the distribution of Spanish companies that furloughed employees due to the coronavirus crisis in Spain as of June 2020, by type of furlough scheme. The full furlough scheme that was on top of the list, especially where part of the staff was temporarily laid off with 43.2 percent.

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 statistic shows the predicted share of government employees on furlough due to the government shutdown in the United States in 2018, by department. The current government shutdown began on December 22, 2018 and as of January 17, 2019, is still ongoing. It was predicted in December 2018 that a total of 380,000 government employees would be furloughed during the government shutdown, which includes 86 percent of the employees working for the Department of Commerce.

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.

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.

This statistic shows the number of employees of the wholesale trade industry in Canada from 2008 to 2023, by age group. There were around 435,000 wholesale trade employees aged between 25 and 54 years in Canada in 2023.

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.

The health crisis caused by COVID-19 in Spain led the Sánchez Government to announce a series of employment measures to facilitate furloughs, contract suspension procedures or reductions in working hours. All of these measures are temporary, since their validity will expire when the situation sees an improvement. According to a survey conducted between March 23 and 26, 2020, within the companies that have adopted any of these measures, those that opted for furloughs predominate.