Nearly one million workers in the United Kingdom returned to their jobs on a part-time basis in July following the government's introduction of a so-called flexible furlough scheme, the Treasury said in a press release on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th September, 2020) Nearly one million workers in the United Kingdom returned to their jobs on a part-time basis in July following the government's introduction of a so-called flexible furlough scheme, the Treasury said in a press release on Friday.
The flexible furlough scheme sees businesses pay their staff during the hours that they work, with the government paying 80 percent of the remaining hours that they do not work. This allowed 950,000 workers to return to their jobs in July, the Treasury stated.
"These figures show the success of our furlough scheme- making sure people's jobs are there for them to return to," Chancellor Rishi Sunak said in the press release.
According to the Treasury, the number of UK workers in the retail and wholesale sector who were on full furlough dropped to 789,000 in July, down from 1.85 million at the height of the pandemic.
The UK government's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the full name for the furlough initiative, was introduced in March. According to the Treasury, 9.6 million jobs have been supported as a result of the scheme, which is scheduled to come to a close in October.
Since the start of the pandemic, the UK Department of Health and Social Care has registered 381,614 positive tests for COVID-19. On Thursday, public health officials said that 3,395 new cases were reported over the past 24 hours, and fears of a second wave have prompted Prime Minister Boris Johnson to say that tougher social distancing measures may be introduced.
