Ruth Gregory, the senior UK economist at Capital Economics, said this meant fewer jobs would be furloughed than during the first nationwide shutdown. She said 5.5 million was an upper estimate because many companies had already made job cuts and were now more adept at remote working. But she said a sharp rise was to be expected as many businesses would be forced to close entirely.
“If we learned anything from the spring, it is that firms did not hesitate to place workers on to the furlough scheme,” she said.
“If we learned anything from the spring, it is that firms did not hesitate to place workers on to the furlough scheme,” she said.