One in five employees still on the furlough scheme
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One in five workers, or around 19 per cent of the UK’s workforce, are still making use of the furlough scheme, according to the latest figures from the ONS.
Approximately six million people are still on furlough, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, ahead of a gradual reopening of the economy that will, over time, see closed businesses start trading again.
Nearly a quarter (24%) of businesses in the UK are temporarily closed or have paused trading. Of those, nearly half of their workforce (49%) is on furlough.
Of businesses still trading, 44 per cent reported a negative impact on their turnover compared with what is normally expected for this time of year.
Online job adverts up
Meanwhile the number of online job advertisements stood at 86 per cent of the level seen late last February, an increase of five percentage points compared with two weeks ago.
The ONS said the uptick was in line with the broad continuation of a trend of increasing weekly job adverts. In May 2020 the number of job adverts listed online hit a low, at just 34 per cent of the level seen in May 2019.
Online job adverts in the ‘catering and hospitality’ and ‘education’ categories saw an increase of five and seven percentage points compared with two weeks ago to 28 per cent and 75 per cent of the level seen in the same week last year, respectively.
The ‘wholesale and retail’ and ‘healthcare and social care’ categories remained broadly unchanged from two weeks ago.
The most notable rise was for ‘transport, logistics and warehouse’ and ‘manufacturing’ categories, which increased by 36 and 21 percentage points to 151 per cent and 149 per cent of their level seen in the same week of last year, respectively.
The largest fall in the last two weeks came from ‘legal’, which decreased by 18 percentage points to 63 per cent of the level seen in the same week last year.