Government pays wages of 25% of the workforce
More than 600,000 workers left UK payrolls between March and May, according to official figures from the Office of National Statistics – but economists agree that the real employment picture across the country will not be visible until wage support schemes such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) end in October.
At the same time, the official UK unemployment rate for the period was 3.9%, the relatively stable figure reflecting the millions of workers on the CJRS, or furlough, programme.
The number of people claiming work-related benefits increased by 126% to 2.8 million, reflecting the impact of about six weeks of lockdown in which many business sectors were closed.
Job vacancies between March and May fell by 342,000 from the previous quarter, down to 476,000. According to the Institute for Employment Studies, eight unemployed people are pursuing every job vacancy in the UK, an increase from two before the pandemic hit.
On Tuesday 16 June, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) reported that 9.1 million workers – more than a quarter of the workforce – are having their wages paid through the CJRS.
