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27 January, 2021 Open access

TUC calls on government to urgently extend Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to safeguard jobs

Highlighting correlation between peaks in unemployment and previously scheduled endings of the scheme, union warns of risk to jobs in failing to guarantee continuation of support 'until the eleventh hour'

The TUC has called on the government to urgently extend the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) in order to safeguard jobs.

In a new analysis, the TUC highlights that Office for National Statistics figures on unemployment in the UK published yesterday show that, in the period from September to November 2020 -

The TUC goes on to say that, while the CJRS has doubtless saved many millions of jobs, employment outcomes appear to be influenced by interplays between lockdown and furlough arrangements, with the two peak months for unemployment increases since March 2020 happening around the previously scheduled endings of the furlough scheme in June and October 2020.

Highlighting that on 17 December 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak further extended the CJRS until the end of April 2021, the TUC says that -

'These peak changes in and around previous deadlines shows how the furlough scheme supports employment, and the threat of its ending or diluting undermines that support.

The present April deadline will come all too soon for firms and workers.

The government must recognise the damage done by withdrawing support too soon, or by failing to guarantee continuation of support until the eleventh hour.'

Commenting on the new analysis, TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said today -

'The more people we keep in work, the faster we can recover. But with the job retention scheme set to end in April, millions of people’s jobs hang in the balance.

When the government planned to withdraw support last autumn, despite restrictions still being in place, unemployment surged. We can’t let that happen again.

It’s time to end the uncertainty and anxiety. The Chancellor must urgently extend furlough support to the end of the year to keep jobs safe.'

For more information, see Time for certainty on worker protection as unemployment rises fast from tuc.org.uk