Just 42% of businesses are topping up 80% staff furlough pay

According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), less than half of businesses using the government’s furlough scheme are topping up their staff’s pay above the 80% guaranteed by the taxpayer.

In the final two weeks of May only 42% of company’s said they have covered the to 20% gap, despite 79% of those firms were trading.

Across all industries, 5% of business indicated they had restarted trading in the last two weeks after a pause in trading https://t.co/ryOwrdtL1u pic.twitter.com/QltUHZmKOT

— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) June 18, 2020

Just 5% of companies started to trade again between 18 and the 31 May and a further 5% said they will restart business in the first few weeks of June.

Officials found that 30% of the workforce were on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).

On Tuesday, the Treasury said that 9.1m jobs were covered by the scheme, and according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), said it will cost around £60bn by October.

The number of online job adverts in wholesale and retail increased from 24.1% to 35.1% of their 2019 average between 5 and 12 June, in anticipation of non-essential retailers reopening https://t.co/oV9GDKffTa pic.twitter.com/iO2dzuPRwO

— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) June 18, 2020

7,245 UK businesses from a sample size of 20,548, 84% of firms said they were continuing to trade, according to the ONS’s Business Impact of Coronavirus Survey (BICS).

Out of those businesses only 16% said they are temporarily shut, and wholesale and retail sectors were the strongest sectors that grew by the end of May.

This suggests that business turnover had increased.

Construction and manufacturing sectors reported the biggest proportions of people coming off furlough and returning to work, 14% and 10% respectively, whilst 5% of the workforce returned to work.

This matches government data and the period when workers were allowed to go back to work in those sectors.

Other ONS research found that almost half of all working adults, 49%, worked from home between 11 and 14 June 11, which is up from 41% the previous week.