// 1 in 3 UK businesses are expected to make job cuts by October
// 33% of 2000 businesses surveyed said they expect to make redundancies
New research has found that one in three businesses across the UK expect to make job cuts by October as the Covid-19 crisis takes a toll on the economy.
At least 33 per cent of 2000 businesses surveyed said they expected to make redundancies in the third quarter of this year, according to figures from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Adecco Group.
The UK is likely to experience a rise in job cuts as the government’s furlough scheme is withdrawn.
READ MORE: “Substantial declines” in retail job vacancies
The scheme, which was introduced at the beginning of lockdown, saw the government pay for 80 per cent of workers’ wages, which was up to £2500 a month.
However, from this month the government is making businesses with furloughed workers contribute a higher percentage of their wages, and the scheme is due to end completely in October.
“Until now, redundancies have been low – no doubt due to the job retention scheme – but we expect to see more redundancies come through this autumn, especially in the private sector, once the scheme closes,” CIPD senior labour market adviser Gerwyn Davis said.
Earlier this year, the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) revealed that 24,348 jobs had been scrapped by UK retailers in the first half of 2020.
At the time, major retailers like Laura Ashley, Debenhams, Monsoon Accessorize, Cath Kidston, Quiz and Victoria’s Secret’s UK arm had all entered insolvency after being forced to shut their doors in March during lockdown.
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