Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

The government announced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) on 20 March 2020. Employers were able to claim CJRS support for employees furloughed from the start of March. Between 1 July 2020 and 31 October 2020, except in certain exceptional circumstances, staff who had not already been furloughed under the scheme could not be included in claims for support. The government then announced an extension to the CJRS starting in November 2020 and currently scheduled to remain open until the end of April 2021.

The latest data gives information about furloughed employments at the end of January 2021. On that date:

• Just over 114,000 employments were furloughed in the North East LEP area
• this had increased by almost 18,000 in the latest month and had more than doubled since the end of October, before the CJRS extension began
• it was still almost 13,000 fewer than at the end of July 2020
• the take-up rate in the North East LEP area was 13.9 per cent, lower than that of England as a whole (15.0 per cent)
• take-up rates were highest in Newcastle, Gateshead and Northumberland (15.6, 14.8 and 14.4 per cent, respectively)
• each of the 22 North East constituency areas had 4,000 or more furloughed employments
• the constituencies in Newcastle, Gateshead and North Tyneside had the highest numbers of furloughed employments (5,700 and above)
• about 51.7 per cent of furloughed workers were female, a similar percentage to nationally
• this was 1.4 percentage points higher than at the end of July 2020
• the proportion of female furloughed workers was highest in Northumberland (over 55 per cent).

Information  about furloughed employments by sector is only available for the North East region (including the North East and Tees Valley LEP areas).  At the end of January 2021 in the region:

• Over a quarter of furloughed employments were in accommodation and food services, a slightly higher proportion than nationally (24 per cent)
• a further 19 per cent were in retail and wholesale but this was a lower proportion than nationally (20 per cent)
• almost 9 per cent were in manufacturing, a higher percentage than nationally (less than 7 per cent)
• about 7 per cent were in each of business support services and arts and recreation, compared to, respectively, about 8 and 6 per cent nationally
• accommodation and food services made up a much larger percentage of furloughed employments than it did in March to July 2020
• the proportions in arts and recreation and  in personal and membership services was also higher in January than in the earlier period 
• however, the latest proportions in manufacturing and construction were lower than in March to July.

Information about fully and partially furloughed employments is also only available on a regional basis.  In the North East region at the end of January 2021:

• About 73 per cent of furloughed employments were fully furloughed, a higher proportion than nationally (70 per cent)
• fully furloughed employments had increased by over 71,000 since 31 October but partially furloughed employments were only 9,000 higher
• between July and October, the proportion of furloughed employments that were partially furloughed had increased from 23 to 46 per cent before falling back to the latest value of 27 per cent.