Uk Government Supports The Wages Of 44,100 Jobs Across The Highlands And Western Isles

15th July 2020

This is the second release of Official Statistics on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and provides analysis of claims made up until 30 June 2020.

Additional statistics on the CJRS will be published in future months. The release is classed as Experimental Statistics as the methodologies used to produce the statistics are still in their development phase. As a result, the figures are subject to revision (see strengths and limitations section for further details).

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) was announced by the government on 20 March 2020 in order to support employers who have been unable to undertake their normal activities through the COVID-19 period. Under CJRS, employers are able to claim support from the period starting 1 March 2020, where employees have already been furloughed from that date. For the period covered by this release the scheme provides employers with financial support of up to 80% of salary, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month per employee, plus associated Employer National Insurance contributions and minimum automatic enrolment pension contributions. The scheme changed in some respects from 1 July 2020, however the changes are after the period covered by this release.

Main points

The key points from this release covering CJRS claims to 30 June 2020 are:

9.4 million employments had been placed on furlough, an increase of 678,000 compared with claims made until the end of May

1.14 million employers had made at least one CJRS claim - this is an increase of 75,000 over claims made to the end of May

the total claimed was £26.5 billion at the end of June, representing an additional £9.0 billion in support claimed since the end of May

employees of small and micro-sized employers were more likely to have been furloughed than those working for medium-sized and large employers: 57% of employments at employers with 5 to 9 employees had been furloughed against just 19% at employers with 250 or more employees

in the accommodation and food services sector has had the highest proportion of employers furloughing at least some staff (87%) and the highest proportion of total employments furloughed at 73%

based on employees' residential address, the proportion of employments furloughed ranges from 29% in the South East and East of England, and Wales to 32% in the West Midlands

the local authority with the highest proportion of employments furloughed was South Lakeland at 40% and the lowest was Boston in Lincolnshire at 20%

by age, employees aged 17 were most likely to be furloughed. 61% of employments with a female employee aged 17 were furloughed, the equivalent figure for males was 58%

across the age bands and by gender, employments with male employees aged 41 to 49 were least likely to be furloughed (28%), while for females, employments where the employees were aged 41 to 57 were the least likely to be furloughed (23%)