- Talent Management
- Movements
- Employee Experience & Culture
- Work Life Balance
- Learning & Development
- More
- Talent Management
- Movements
- Employee Experience & Culture
- Performance Management
- Compensation and Benefits
- Hiring Firing
- Employee Wellbeing & Safety
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Compensation and Benefits
- Learning and Development
- Leadership
- HR Tech
- HR Trends & Global HR News
Up To 700,000 COVID Lay-offs Expected By Q4 In The UK
The IES is also estimating a further 205,000 redundancies in Q4 after the government's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ends—meaning that by the end of 2020, a million jobs may have been lost across the country.
Employers in the UK announced at least 240,000 lay-offs in the first half of this year. Now, based on government statistics, independent think-tank the Institute for Employment Studies has predicted that nearly 450,000 more redundancies might take place in the third quarter. Leading to the actual total hit 700,000 or even more because the official figures on which the analysis are based, do not include redundancies by employers cutting 20 or fewer jobs.
It was only during the 2009 recession, at the time of the global financial crisis, that the UK saw such a surge in lay-offs. But even then, the largest number of jobs lost in a single quarter was around 305,000, far below the most optimistic estimates for the present day.
"Comparing what is happening now with what was happening in the last recession shows us we are experiencing a jobs crisis unlike anything we have seen before," said Tony Wilson, Director of the IES. He pointed out that some of the job losses were due to businesses being unable to bring employees back despite being viable because of the pandemic disruption. "So we need tightly targeted support to help these firms ride out the next few months, where they can commit to not laying staff off."
Besides, the IES is also estimating a further 205,000 redundancies in Q4, after the government's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ends—meaning that by the end of 2020, a million jobs may have been lost across the country.
Moreover, the number does not include temporary furloughs and reductions in hours and pay. If those are included a total of 7.6 million jobs or 24 per cent of the UK workforce are either at risk or have already suffered, according to a May study by McKinsey.
The study also pointed out that low-income locations and occupations are disproportionately affected.
The government is under considerable pressure to extend its job support scheme, but whether it has the financial reserves to do so is still in question.
