Official Statistics

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme statistics: 4 November 2021

Published 4 November 2021

Overview

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) ended on 30 September 2021.

Provisional data shows that when it closed on 30 September, the CJRS was supporting 410,000 employers who had a total of 1.14 million jobs on furlough. This is a decrease of 210,000 employments from 31 August when there were 1.35 million employments on furlough.

These statistics provide analysis of claims for support in paying the wages of staff on furlough for periods up to 30 September 2021. The data used includes claims submitted to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) by 14 October 2021.

Support for paying the wages of staff on furlough was available from the CJRS up to 30 September 2021 when the scheme was closed. This publication will be published for a final time next month on 16 December, it will include the final revisions of employments on furlough in September 2021.

These statistics are Experimental Statistics and are subject to revisions. Further information on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the compilation of these statistics and the meaning of the term Experimental Statistics is provided later in this publication.

Contact details

For queries or feedback on this publication, please contact:

• C Breeze

For press queries, please contact:

• D Allen
• W Lyon

Next release

The next release will be published on 16 December 2021.

Main points

The key points from this release covering the period to 30 September 2021 are below. Figures for September 2021 are provisional and subject to revision of around 25,000 jobs as additional claims for the period are received.

• since the start of the scheme a cumulative total of 11.7 million jobs have been supported by the CJRS at various times. This is across all claims submitted to HMRC by 14 October 2021
• provisional figures show that the number of employments on furlough was 1.14 million at 30 September 2021. This is a decrease of 210,000 from 31 August when the number of employments on furlough was 1.35 million. Numbers on furlough last peaked at 5.1 million in January 2021 and have since fallen by 3.9 million. These figures do not sum exactly due to rounding
• at 30 September 2021, provisional figures show that 21% of employers had staff on furlough, down from 23% at 31 August 2021. Also, at 30 September 2021, 4% of employments eligible for furlough were on furlough (provisional figure), down from 5% at 31 August. The proportion of jobs on furlough was higher among small and micro-sized employers than among larger employers (see section on furlough by size, below)
• the industry that had the highest proportion of employments on furlough was other service activities (11% of employments eligible for furlough on furlough at 30 September 2021). This is mainly driven by the other personal service activities industry group (15% of employments on furlough)
• the accommodation and food services sector saw the largest reduction in the number of employments on furlough between 31 August and 30 September (down by 43,000), although 9% of eligible employments in this sector were still on furlough at the end of September
• industry groups among those related to travel and tourism had the highest take-up rates at 30 September 2021: notably passenger air transport (36%) and travel agency and tour operator activities (35%). The passenger air transport group saw a drop of 13 percentage points in take-up between the end of August and the end of September. This was the largest decrease across all industry groups
• the CJRS take-up rate decreased faster amongst larger employers from their 2021 peaks. The proportion of the largest employers (with 250 or more jobs) using the CJRS reduced from 58% in February to 22% at the end of September
• more employments were put on furlough with male job holders than female job holders between May and September 2021.This reflects decreases in the number of jobs on furlough in sectors such as accommodation and food which typically have higher numbers of female employees
• use of furlough was highest in London and near most London airports at the end of September. The take-up rates for these areas was around double the UK average
• employments where the employee is in the 65 and over age band were more than twice as likely to be on furlough at 30 September 2021 (a take-up rate of 7%) compared to those in the 29 and under age bands (take-up rates of 3%)
• the number of employments on flexible furlough reduced by 17% in September compared to a 13% reduction for those on full furlough
• slightly over half of employments on furlough at 30 September had estimated annual pay of up to £15,000

About the data in this release

The data used in this release comprises the CJRS claims made up to 14 October 2021.

This release presents the total number of employments on furlough each day from March 2020 to September 2021, as well as figures for use at of CJRS extension at 31 August and 30 September 2021.

Additionally, this release also presents the cumulative number of Pay As You Earn (PAYE) schemes claiming and the number of employments on furlough since the start of the scheme up to 30 September from claims made up to 14 October 2021, also broken down by local authority and Parliamentary constituency.

These statistics have been developed taking into account user feedback and requests. We would welcome any further feedback from users. This should be sent to CJRS.Statistics.Enquiries@hmrc.gov.uk. Responses will then be taken into consideration when developing future releases.

We have also published a Background Quality Report (BQR) for the CJRS publications which helps users of the statistics understand their strengths and limitations.

Key limitations and revisions

The figures for September 2021 are based on claims received by the September deadline (14 October 2021). In some circumstances, late claims can be made with a reasonable excuse and in agreement with HMRC. Claims for September could also be amended until 28 October. Therefore, the data for September 2021 is incomplete and is considered provisional.

It is estimated that the overall total number of employments on furlough in September 2021 will be in the region of 25,000 jobs higher once all claims are submitted and revisions applied.

Cumulative totals

This section of the release presents the cumulative number of jobs on furlough since the start of the scheme in March 2020 up to 30 September 2021 from claims received up to 14 October 2021. It also includes figures for the cumulative number of PAYE schemes that have claimed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the total amount claimed.

Table 1 shows that employers claimed support to put 11.7 million unique jobs on furlough under the CJRS. This is a cumulative figure and covers all jobs on furlough for at least part of the duration of the scheme since it began.

An individual employed by more than one employer is counted once for each employment from which they have been put on furlough. Two individuals who have been employed in the same role with an employer at different times are counted as two separate employments. In this release the terms ‘employments’ and ‘jobs’ are used interchangeably.

The most recent figures in table 1 are based on claims received up to 14 October 2021, the deadline for claims relating to September 2021. As well as claims for furlough during September 2021, these latest figures also include late or revised claims for August 2021 where the claim/revision was received by the 28 September 2021 deadline.

Table 1 also includes the cumulative total number of employer PAYE schemes claiming support and the value of claims submitted. The figures for the number and value of claims do not take account of voluntary repayments nor remove claims not paid for compliance reasons. Claims cancelled by employers within 72 hours of making the claim are excluded.

Table 1: Cumulative claims and jobs on furlough covered by claims since the start of the CJRS

Claims submitted up to:	Cumulative number of jobs on furlough (millions)	Cumulative number of employers (millions)	Cumulative amount claimed (£ billion)
15 February 2021	11.2	1.3	53.8
15 March 2021	11.4	1.3	57.7
14 April 2021	11.5	1.3	61.3
14 May 2021	11.5	1.3	64.0
14 June 2021	11.6	1.3	65.9
14 July 2021	11.6	1.3	67.4
16 August 2021	11.6	1.3	68.5
14 September 2021	11.7	1.3	69.3
14 October 2021	11.7	1.3	70.0

Source: HMRC CJRS data

As described in the methodology section of this release, the method used to calculate the number of jobs on furlough since the start of the scheme was improved for the February release of these statistics. As a result, the figures in table 1 are not directly comparable with the management information published before the February release.

This methodology change does not affect published figures on the number of jobs on furlough at the end of each month, or the more detailed statistics on the number of jobs on furlough each day.

The spreadsheet that accompanies this release also includes figures broken down by local authority and Parliamentary constituency.

HMRC separately publishes figures for the value of claims paid to employers in its monthly publication on tax receipts. The timing of those figures reflects when payments are made rather than when claims are received, so compiled on a slightly different basis to the figures included in this release.

Employments on furlough over time

This section of the release presents the number of employments on furlough each day from the scheme’s start up to 30 September 2021.

Where an employer makes a claim for fewer than 16 jobs (fewer than 100 jobs before 27 May 2021), HMRC collects the start and end date of the claim as a whole but does not collect the furlough start and end dates for each job in the claim. For these jobs, we use the claim period to estimate when the job was on furlough.

For example, if a job in one of these claims was on furlough from the 1 May to 16 May 2021, but the full claim period was from 1 May to 31 May, the job would appear to be on furlough for the full month. This leads to an overestimate in the number of jobs on furlough at the end of the month during periods where levels of furlough are decreasing.

The chart in figure 1 shows the number of jobs on furlough under claims for support to the CJRS. The underlying data for this figure can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

Key points to note from figure 1 are:

• the number of employments on furlough peaked at 8.9 million on 8 May 2020. This figure fell to 2.4 million at 31 October 2020, rose again to 5.1 million employments on furlough at 19 January 2021 and then decreased until the scheme ended
• provisional figures show that the number of employments on furlough was 1.14 million at 30 September 2021. This is a decrease of 210,000 from 31 August when the number of employments on furlough was 1.35 million
• at 30 September 2021, provisional figures show that 21% of employers had staff on furlough, down from 23% at 31 August 2021
• the levels of furlough seen in these figures reflect the changes to restrictions on individuals, households and businesses across the UK over time

Figure 1: Total employments on furlough, 23 March 2020 to 30 September 2021

The number of employments on furlough decreased each month between March and September 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS data

Furlough by industry

This section presents analysis of CJRS claims according to the primary economic sector of employers’ activity.

Figure 2 shows the number of employments on furlough by day in each of the 15 industrial sectors that experienced higher levels of furlough. Tables 2a and 2b show the take-up rates for eligible employments in each sector at 31 August and 30 September 2021. The underlying data for these charts can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

The figures for the value of claims do not take account of voluntary repayments nor remove claims not paid for compliance reasons. Claims cancelled by employers within 72 hours of making the claim are excluded.

The key points to note are:

• provisional figures show that all sectors saw a reduction in levels of furlough between 31 August and 30 September
• the other service activities sector had the highest take-up rates of all the sectors, with 11% of employments eligible for furlough on furlough at 30 September 2021.
• the arts, entertainment and recreation, and accommodation and food services sectors both had the second highest take-up rates, with 9% of employments eligible for furlough on furlough at 30 September 2021
• the accommodation and food services sector saw the largest reduction in the number of employments on furlough between 31 August and 30 September. There were 156,900 employments on furlough (9% of those eligible) in this sector at 30 September 2021, a reduction of 42,900
• the construction sector had a relatively high take-up rate of 7%. The number of employments on furlough in this sector had the smallest reduction between the end of August and September, falling by 9%

Figure 2: Total employments on furlough by industry (millions) (largest 15 sectors in decreasing order of total employments on furlough at 30 September), October 2020 to September 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Table 2a: Employments on furlough by sector as at 30 September 2021 (provisional)

Sector (SIC 2007 section)	Employments on furlough	Take-up rateǂ
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	3,700	2%
Mining and quarrying	500	1%
Manufacturing	119,800	5%
Energy production and supply	600	<0.5%
Water supply, sewerage and waste	3,900	2%
Construction	92,700	7%
Wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles	172,000	4%
Transportation and storage	90,600	7%
Accommodation and food services	156,900	9%
Information and communication	47,800	4%
Finance and insurance	11,900	1%
Real estate	23,400	5%
Professional, scientific and technical	113,100	5%
Administrative and support services	121,300	5%
Public administration and defence; social security	1,000	<0.5%
Education	28,900	1%
Health and social work	43,800	1%
Arts, entertainment and recreation	47,600	9%
Other service activities	55,300	11%
Households	800	1%
Unknown and other	8,000	-
Total	1,143,600	4%

Table 2b: Employments on furlough by sector as at 31 August 2021

Sector (SIC 2007 section)	Employments on furlough	Take-up rateǂ
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	4,200	2%
Mining and quarrying	600	1%
Manufacturing	136,100	6%
Energy production and supply	800	1%
Water supply, sewerage and waste	4,300	2%
Construction	101,700	8%
Wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles	198,400	5%
Transportation and storage	110,900	8%
Accommodation and food services	199,700	12%
Information and communication	53,500	4%
Finance and insurance	13,600	1%
Real estate	26,100	6%
Professional, scientific and technical	127,300	6%
Administrative and support services	141,700	6%
Public administration and defence; social security	1,300	<0.5%
Education	43,200	1%
Health and social work	55,800	1%
Arts, entertainment and recreation	59,500	12%
Other service activities	63,200	12%
Households	1,000	1%
Unknown and other	9,800	-
Total	1,352,900	5%

ǂ The take-up rates are based on employments eligible for the CJRS extension.

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data and Inter-Departmental Business Register

A more detailed breakdown by industry group is presented in table 10a of the accompanying spreadsheet.

The key points to note are:

• industry groups among those related to tourism had the highest take-up rates at 30 September 2021: notably passenger air transport (36%) and travel agency and tour operator activities (35%). The passenger air transport group has seen a 13 percentage point drop in take-up rate since the end of August, the largest decrease of all industry groups
• photographic activities had a take-up rate of 29%
• restaurants and mobile food service activities saw the largest reduction in jobs on furlough between 31 August and 30 September: a decrease of 14,700. This was followed by event catering and other food service activities which saw a reduction of 10,500, and beverage serving activities of 9,000
• the other service activities sector had the highest take-up rates of all the sectors, with 11% of employments eligible for furlough on furlough at 30 September 2021. This is mainly driven by other personal service activities with a take-up rate of 15% and repair of personal and household goods (14%)

Furlough by employer size

This section presents analysis of CJRS claims according to the employer size. The employer size has been calculated based on an estimate of the number of employments eligible to be on furlough.

Figure 3 presents the number of employments on furlough by day in each employer size band. Tables 3a and 3b show the take-up rates for eligible employments in each size band at 31 August and 30 September 2021. The underlying data for these charts can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

This release contains a revision to the methodology for defining the scheme size bands. This has resulted in some employers being recategorised into the 10-19 size band from the 20-49 size band. This change has a negligible impact on the take-up rates in these size bands.

The figures for the value of claims do not take account of voluntary repayments nor remove claims not paid for compliance reasons. Claims cancelled by employers within 72 hours of making the claim are excluded.

The key points to note are:

• for all employer sizes, the number of employments on furlough decreased month on month between February and September 2021
• for several months the use of furlough has decreased at a faster rate among larger employers, this continued in September 2021
• most recently the largest reduction was for employers with 250 or more employees where the number of employments on furlough decreased by 57,700 from 199,900 employments at 31 August 2021 to a provisional estimate of 142,200 at 30 September 2021
• employers with one employment had 117,100 employments on furlough at 31 August 2021. Provisional figures show only a modest decrease to 108,900 employments on furlough at 30 September 2021
• employers with 2 to 4 employees had the highest proportion of eligible employments on furlough at the end of September (17%). Provisional figures for 30 September 2021 show that employers with 250 or more employees had just 1% of eligible employees on furlough
• between January and the end of September, the number of employments on furlough decreased by a larger proportion amongst large employers. Employers with 250 or more employees have seen an 91% reduction in employments on furlough since the peak in January, in comparison with a 47% reduction amongst employers with one employee. This may reflect the varying impact of the pandemic on businesses of differing sizes
• the proportion of largest employers (with 250 or more jobs) using the CJRS reduced from 58% in February to 22% at the end of September

Figure 3: Total employments on furlough (millions) by employer size (number of employees), October 2020 to September 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Table 3a: Employments on furlough by employer size at 30 September 2021 (provisional)

Employer size	Employments on furlough	Eligible employmentsǂ	Take-up rateǂ
1	108,900	750,700	15%
2 to 4	305,400	1,790,800	17%
5 to 9	194,200	1,578,400	12%
10 to 19	153,900	1,729,700	9%
20 to 49	127,600	2,423,100	5%
50 to 99	55,200	1,793,100	3%
100 to 249	51,300	2,376,600	2%
250 and over	142,200	16,249,700	1%
Unknown	4,800	-	-
Total	1,143,600	28,692,200	4%

Table 3b: Employments on furlough by employer size as at 31 August 2021

Employer size	Employments on furlough	Eligible employmentsǂ	Take-up rateǂ
1	117,100	750,700	16%
2 to 4	330,300	1,790,800	18%
5 to 9	218,800	1,578,400	14%
10 to 19	180,100	1,729,700	10%
20 to 49	158,100	2,423,100	7%
50 to 99	71,400	1,793,100	4%
100 to 249	70,700	2,376,600	3%
250 and over	199,900	16,249,700	1%
Unknown	6,400	-	-
Total	1,352,900	28,692,200	5%

ǂ The take-up rates are based on employments eligible for the CJRS extension.

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Furlough by country and region

This section presents a geographic breakdown of CJRS claims.

This is based on the residential address information that HMRC holds for employees. This does not directly translate to the employee’s usual place of work, or employer’s centre of operations which may be in a different region.

For example, an employee who lives in Wales and normally commutes daily to work in Bristol would be included within the count for Wales, rather than for South West England. At present these statistics are only available for 1 July onwards (see methodology section for more information).

Figure 4 presents the number of employments on furlough in each country and region by day. Figure 5 shows the employments on furlough by country and region and gender at 30 September 2021, whilst figure 6 shows the take-up rates for this date. The underlying data for these charts can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

The key points to note are:

• across all English regions, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, provisional figures show that the number of employments on furlough continued to decrease substantially in September 2021 after sizeable reductions between May and August 2021
• the largest proportionate reduction in September was in the South West
• there were 1.13 million employments on furlough in England at 31 August 2021. Provisional estimates show that the number of employments on furlough decreased in September to 964,600 at 30 September 2021
• in London – the English region with the most staff on furlough between July 2020 and September 2021, there were 265,800 employments on furlough at 31 August 2021. London had the highest take-up rate (6%) with provisional figures showing 231,100 employments on furlough on 30 September
• the number of employments on furlough in Scotland on 31 August 2021 was 94,800. Provisional figures show a decrease in the number of employments on furlough to 80,300 at 30 September 2021
• the number of employments on furlough in Wales was 46,600 at 31 August 2021. Provisional estimates show the number of employments on furlough decreased in September to 39,700 at 30 September 2021
• the number of employments on furlough in Northern Ireland on 31 August 2021 was 30,100. Provisional figures show that the number of employments on furlough decreased to 26,300 at 30 September 2021

Figure 4: Total employments on furlough (millions) by country and region, October 2020 to September 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Figure 5: Employments on furlough at 30 September 2021 (provisional), by Country and Region and gender

Region	Female	Male	Total
London	103,700	127,400	231,100
South East	74,800	79,200	154,100
North West	52,500	65,800	118,300
East of England	49,300	52,500	101,800
West Midlands	43,600	57,100	100,700
South West	35,300	36,300	71,600
Yorkshire And The Humber	34,000	41,900	75,900
East Midlands	34,800	38,300	73,100
North East	15,600	22,500	38,100
Wales	18,500	21,200	39,700
Scotland	38,700	41,600	80,300
Northern Ireland	12,500	13,700	26,300

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Figure 6: Employment furlough take-up rate at 30 September 2021 (provisional), by Country and Region and gender

Region	Female	Male
London	5%	7%
South East	4%	4%
North West	3%	4%
East of England	4%	4%
West Midlands	4%	5%
South West	3%	3%
Yorkshire And The Humber	3%	4%
East Midlands	3%	4%
North East	3%	4%
Wales	3%	4%
Scotland	3%	4%
Northern Ireland	3%	4%

ǂ The take-up rates are based on employments eligible for the CJRS extension.

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Furlough by country, region and sector

Tables 17, 17a, 18 and 18a in the accompanying spreadsheet show the number of employments on furlough by local authority and region by sector at 31 August and provisional estimates at 30 September 2021.

The key points to note are:

• at 30 September, the wholesale and retail sector had the largest number of employments on furlough across more than half of the regions and countries in the UK
• for Scotland and London, the accommodation and food services sector had the largest number of employments on furlough, but for the North East and the West Midlands this was the manufacturing sector
• in London, just under 1 in 5 of the employments on furlough were in the accommodation and food services sector on 31 August 2021. Provisional estimates show this fell slightly in September to 17.5%

Furlough by local authority and UK Parliamentary constituency

This section presents a geographic breakdown of CJRS claims by local authority and UK Parliamentary constituency.

Tables 12 and 13 of the accompanying spreadsheet additionally provide a gender breakdown that is not shown in these maps.

Figures 7a and 7b present maps of the take-up rate for employments on furlough by local authority at 31 August and 30 September 2021 (provisional figures). Darker shades indicate a higher take-up rate.

The key points to note for local authorities at 30 September 2021 (provisional figures) are:

• levels of furlough have decreased across the UK between August and September. Most local authorities had a take-up rate of 4% or less at 30 September
• the local authorities which saw the largest decrease in levels of furlough between 31 August and 30 September were Moray in Scotland, Oxford and Cambridge. These areas saw reductions in the number of employments on furlough of 29%, 28% and 27% respectively
• six of the ten local authorities with the highest proportion of eligible jobs on furlough in September were near airports. Hounslow (8%), Hillingdon (7%) and Ealing (8%) near Heathrow Airport, Newham (8%) and Redbridge (8%) near London City Airport and Crawley (7%) near Gatwick Airport. Local authorities in north and north-west London made up the rest of the top ten, these were: Barnet (8%), Brent (8%), Enfield (7%), and Harrow (7%)
• the highest take-up rates are approaching double the national average of 4%
• at 22,700, Birmingham had the highest number of employments on furlough, a take-up rate of 5%
• in Scotland take-up rates were broadly similar across all local authorities. East Renfrewshire had the highest take-up rates at 5%
• in Northern Ireland, all local authorities were broadly similar to the regional average take-up rate of 4%
• in Wales, take-up rates were very similar across local authorities at 3% with Blaenau Gwent, Carmarthenshire, Conwy, and Vale of Glamorgan at 4%

Figure 7a:Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 30 September 2021 (provisional), by local authority

Figure 7b:Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 31 August 2021, by local authority

ǂ These maps are based on the number of employments eligible for the CJRS extension. (See methodology section for more information.)

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Figures 8a and 8b present maps of the take-up rates for employments on furlough for UK Parliamentary constituencies at 31 August and 30 September 2021 (provisional figures). Darker shades indicate a higher take-up rate.

The key points to note for UK Parliamentary constituencies at 30 September 2021 (provisional figures) are:

• the London constituencies of Ilford South, Enfield Southgate, East Ham, Finchley and Golders Green, Feltham and Heston and Hayes and Harlington had the highest take-up rates at 9%
• West Ham and East Ham constituencies had the highest number of employments on furlough with 6,100
• in Northern Ireland, all constituencies had broadly similar with take-up rates of 3% or 4%
• in Scotland, East Renfrewshire and Glasgow Central had the highest take-up rate at 5%
• in Wales all constituencies had broadly similar take-up rates of 3 or 4%

Figure 8a: Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 30 September (provisional) 2021, by Parliamentary constituency

Figure 8b: Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 31 August 2021, by Parliamentary constituency

ǂ These maps are based on the number of employments eligible for the CJRS extension. (See methodology section for more information).

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Furlough by gender

This section provides analysis showing the number of employments on furlough each day from 1 July 2020 up to 30 September 2021, broken down by the claimants’ gender. The underlying data for figure 9 can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet. At present these statistics are only available for 1 July onwards (see methodology section for more information).

The key points to note are:

• more employments were put on furlough with male job holders than female job holders between May and September 2021. This reflects decreases in the number of jobs on furlough in sectors such as accommodation and food which typically have higher numbers of female employees
• for jobs where the employee was female, there were 624,600 employments on furlough at 31 August 2021. Provisional figures show that this decreased throughout August to 523,300 at 30 September 2021
• for jobs where the employee was male, there were 704,400 employments on furlough at 31 August 2021. Provisional figures show the number of employments on furlough decreased to 610,000 at 30 September 2021

Figure 9: Total employments on furlough by gender, July 2020 to September 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Furlough by age

This section provides analysis of CJRS claims broken down by age band. The claimant’s age is calculated at 1 March 2020 for employments on furlough up to 31 October 2020, at 1 November 2020 for employments on furlough from 1 November to 30 April 2021 and at 1 May 2021 for employments on furlough from 1 May 2021 onwards.

Figure 10 shows the proportion of eligible employments on furlough by day in each age band. Figure 11 compares the number of employments on furlough by age band and gender at 31 August and 30 September 2021, whilst figure 12 compares the take-up rates for these dates. At present these statistics are only available for 1 July onwards (see methodology section for more information).

The underlying data for these charts can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet, alongside an extended breakdown of age by local authority and gender, which can be found in tables 14a and 14b. Breakdowns of age by sector can be found in tables 19 and 20.

The key points to note are:

• for all age bands the number of employments on furlough and the take-up rates decreased each month between February and September 2021
• take-up rates for the youngest age bands - under 18 and 18 to 24 - decreased dramatically in May and June 2021 and continued to fall faster than any other age groups between June and September. These age bands had the lowest take-up at 30 September. This reduction is in line with the easing of restrictions across the UK, particularly in hospitality
• take-up rates for the 65 and over age band reduced more slowly than for the youngest age groups between July and September 2021. The 65 and over age band had take-up rates of 6% and 7% for female and male employments respectively at 30 September, higher than the 4% for the total female and male populations

Figure 10: Total proportion of eligible employments on furlough by age of employee, July 2020 to September 2021

Take-up rates were highest among older age groups at the end of the scheme

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Figure 11: Employments on furlough at 31 August and 30 September 2021 (provisional), by age and gender of employee

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Figure 12: Employment furlough take-up rate at 31 August and 30 September 2021 (provisional), by age and gender of the employee

ǂ The take-up rates are based on employments eligible for the CJRS extension. Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Furlough type

This section provides a breakdown of the overall time series by employments on full and flexible furlough. On 1 July 2020, the option was introduced for employers to furlough their employees for part of their usual hours, with the employee free to work the remainder. Therefore, the time series shown in figure 13 starts at 1 July 2020.

The underlying data for figure 13 can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

The key points to note are:

• provisional figures show the number of employments on full furlough at 30 September 2021 was 640,900, decreasing from 735,600 at 31 August
• there were 500,500 employments on flexible furlough at 30 September 2021 (provisional figures), down from 602,500 at 31 August
• the proportion of jobs on furlough reported as flexible furlough increased between February and April 2021, but then stabilised between June and September 2021. This may be due to some employments previously on full furlough moving to flexible furlough as national restrictions eased
• the number of employments on flexible furlough reduced by 17% in September compared to a 13% reduction for those on full furlough

Figure 13: Total employments on full furlough and flexible furlough, July 2020 to September 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS data

Estimated annual pay (employments)

This release includes a breakdown of employments by annual pay band on 31 August and 30 September 2021 (provisional) in table 21 of the accompanying spreadsheet.

The estimated annual pay is based on the gross pay over the period April 2019 to March 2020. The gross pay figure is estimated as pay before any tax, National Insurance or pension contribution contributions are deducted from employee’s pay. If a job does not span the full 12 months the pay from the other months is annualised. Or if annual pay is not available for that period then data from April 2020 to March 2021 is used.

These figures should be interpreted as the estimated gross pay rate for employments. As employees may have more than one job, they should represent the pay received by individuals. Also, as jobs may not last for a year or more, the figures should not be interpreted as total annual amounts of pay for jobs on furlough.

Tables 4a and 4b show the distribution of pay for employments on furlough on 30 September 2021 (provisional) and 31 August 2021.

The key points to note are:

• slightly over half (51%) of employments on furlough at 30 September (provisional) had estimated annual pay up to £15,000
• employments with estimated annual pay of between £5,000 and £10,000 had the highest proportion of eligible employments on furlough at the end of September (8%). These employments are likely to be part-time employments

Table 4a: Employments on furlough by estimated annual pay at 30 September 2021 (provisional)

Estimated annual pay (employments)	Employments on furlough	Eligible employmentsǂ	Take-up rateǂ
£0 to £5,000	58,900	1,687,500	3%
£5,000 to £10,000	298,300	3,857,300	8%
£10,000 to £15,000	231,200	3,765,600	6%
£15,000 to £20,000	140,300	4,087,100	3%
£20,000 to £25,000	114,400	3,701,200	3%
£25,000 to £30,000	85,000	2,791,200	3%
£30,000 to £35,000	54,300	2,066,100	3%
£35,000 to £40,000	39,700	1,580,100	3%
£40,000 to £45,000	25,100	1,190,100	2%
£45,000 to £50,000	16,300	833,200	2%
£50,000 to £60,000	18,100	1,040,300	2%
£60,000 to £70,000	8,400	570,500	1%
£70,000 to £80,000	5,500	360,300	2%
£80,000 to £90,000	3,500	248,000	1%
£90,000 to £100,000	2,700	180,000	1%
Over £100,000	14,400	728,000	2%
Unknown	27,500	-	-
Total	1,143,600	28,692,200	4%

Table 4b: Employments on furlough by estimated annual pay at 31 August 2021

Estimated annual pay (employments)	Employments on furlough	Eligible employmentsǂ	Take-up rateǂ
£0 to £5,000	72,800	1,687,500	4%
£5,000 to £10,000	336,400	3,857,300	9%
£10,000 to £15,000	264,300	3,765,600	7%
£15,000 to £20,000	170,900	4,087,100	4%
£20,000 to £25,000	139,600	3,701,200	4%
£25,000 to £30,000	102,400	2,791,200	4%
£30,000 to £35,000	64,700	2,066,100	3%
£35,000 to £40,000	47,500	1,580,100	3%
£40,000 to £45,000	30,300	1,190,100	3%
£45,000 to £50,000	19,000	833,200	2%
£50,000 to £60,000	21,600	1,040,300	2%
£60,000 to £70,000	10,000	570,500	2%
£70,000 to £80,000	6,500	360,300	2%
£80,000 to £90,000	4,200	248,000	2%
£90,000 to £100,000	3,100	180,000	2%
Over £100,000	16,000	728,000	2%
Unknown	43,400	-	-
Total	1,352,900	28,692,200	5%

ǂ The take-up rates are based on employments eligible for the CJRS extension.

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Background

The government announced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) on 20 March 2020. It was introduced to support employers through the COVID-19 period, this has also been known as the furlough scheme.

The scheme is based around HMRC’s Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system. It works by providing grants to employers of up to a maximum 80% of salary to a maximum value of £2,500 per employee. Up to the end of July 2020, the scheme also met some of the cost of employer pension contributions and employer National Insurance Contributions.

Up to date information about the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme can be found on the GOV.UK website. The pages on applying for support, for example, include further details of the eligibility criteria. Older versions of the guidance can be found in the National Archive by following the links from the guidance pages.

Changes to the scheme from 1 May 2021

It was announced on 3 March 2021 that the CJRS would be extended further, beyond 30 April 2021 to 30 September 2021. To be eligible for furlough from the 1 May 2021 onwards, the employee must have been employed on 2 March 2021 and the employer must have sent a Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC for the employer between 20 March 2020 and 2 March 2021, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee.

As with the extension to the CJRS between November 2020 and April 2021, for claim periods from 1 May to 30 June 2021, employers with a PAYE scheme were able to claim for 80% of an employee’s usual hours worked, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month. For staff who are placed on flexible furlough, the £2,500 cap was reduced by multiplying by the proportion of the employee’s usual hours for which they were put on furlough.

From 1 July 2021, the scheme supported 70% of salaries for hours not worked, reducing to 60% from 1 August 2021.

Glossary

An employer is assumed within the CJRS statistics to have in effect the same scope as a Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Scheme. While most employers operate a single PAYE scheme, for some employers a single PAYE scheme does not relate exactly to what is commonly understood to be an employer.

For example, some organisations operate multiple payrolls, and in other situations, a group of companies may pool their payrolls together under one PAYE scheme. However, in our view PAYE schemes provides a reasonable proxy for employers for the purposes of this release.

An employment is defined within this release as anyone who meets the scheme criteria set out within the published guidance. We have applied this definition in order to keep the presentation simple and the difficulty in separating out Office Holders (such as directors) from what are generally considered employees. Further information on the eligibility criteria is set out in the background section above.

Measuring the data

Data source and collection

The data for this release comes from HM Revenue and Customs’ CJRS claims. It covers the whole population rather than a sample of people or companies, and it will allow for more detailed estimates of the population.

Additional data from HMRC’s Pay As You Earn Real Time Information system has been matched with CJRS data in order to produce the statistics released here.

Coverage

This publication covers all CJRS claims made by employers from the start of the scheme up to 14 October 2021 for support for the wages of staff on furlough up to 30 September 2021. The data for September 2021 is incomplete as claims relating to September 2021 could still be filed and/or amended up to 28 October 2021; thus, the figures for September 2021 should therefore be considered provisional results and will be revised in future releases.

The cumulative figures presented in tables 1, 1a and 1b in the accompanying data tables cover all claims made up to 14 October 2021 irrespective of the period for which the claim covers. Thus, compared with the other tables in this release the cumulative figures additionally cover claims for support for staff on furlough in September 2021 where the claim had been received by 14 October.

Methodology (except table 1)

This section provides notes on the methodology and implications for interpreting the figures.

The data presented in this release comes from combining details about furlough from the job level data and the total number of staff on furlough included in each claim.

The statistics in this release count employments. Therefore (for example), an employee with jobs at two employers will be counted twice if both jobs are put on furlough.

The criteria for eligibility for the CJRS were amended for the first and second CJRS extensions.

For furlough from 1 May 2021 onwards, the number of jobs presented as ‘eligible employments’ and used to calculate take-up figures reflect the criteria for eligibility for the second extension to the CJRS scheme. They are based on a list of employees employed on 2 March 2021 and included in PAYE Real Time Information submissions from 20 March 2020 to 2 March 2021.

In this release employers are described as eligible to claim the CJRS if they employed staff for which the criteria to be eligible for furlough were met. Employers are grouped into size bands in some tables according to the number of employees they had who were eligible to be put on furlough under the extension to CJRS.

In some circumstances HMRC holds incomplete information about employments, for example where a leaving date had not been submitted by employer. In this situation, an estimate of the probability that an individual was employed on the qualifying dates has been used.

The assessment of whether a person was employed on the qualifying dates is based on the methodology used for the joint HMRC/ONS statistics release, Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information.

In producing the time series statistics some challenges had to be tackled. These included dealing with data on amendments to claims and claims for overlapping periods. In addition, claims where 16 or more staff are being put on furlough may include staff on furlough for varying periods. These factors combined with some incomplete data (as mentioned above) make counting the number of employees on furlough over time complex.

The method employed is designed to generally prevent overcounting employments so far as possible, however it may in certain circumstances very slightly under or over count.

Employers making larger claims may submit start and end dates for the periods that individual employees were on furlough when those dates were different to the overall period covered by the claim. But for smaller claims HMRC does not collect the furlough start and end dates for each job separately.

For larger claims employers had to send HMRC a separate file containing the details of the jobs claimed for. Before 27 May 2021 this applied to all claims for 100 or more jobs on furlough. From this date employers claiming for between 16 and 99 jobs could also use this method to submit their claim. For jobs included in smaller claims (submitted without the more detailed information submitted with larger claims), we use the claim period to estimate when the job was on furlough.

For example, if a job in one of the smaller claims was on furlough from the 1 May to 16 May 2021, but the full claim period was from 1 May to 31 May, the job would appear to be on furlough for the full month. This leads to an overestimate in the number of jobs on furlough at the end of the month during periods where levels of furlough are decreasing.

The demographic breakdowns of employments include all employees that employers have put on furlough where it has been possible to link CJRS data to classifying information (such as the employee’s gender and address).

The linking has been performed using employees’ National Insurance numbers to data held within HMRC’s Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) system. When the employer-submitted National Insurance numbers are not of sufficient quality to be matched with other HMRC data, the employments have been categorised as ‘unknown’.

The geographic breakdowns in these statistics use a postcode lookup file from Office for National Statistics (ONS) data to link UK postcodes to geographic areas.

The breakdown by estimated annual pay in these statistics is based on the gross pay over the period April 2019 to March 2020. If a job does not span the full year the pay from the other months is annualised. If annual pay is not available for this period April 2020 to March 2021 is used.

Industrial sector information is based on the Interdepartmental Business Register (IDBR) produced by the ONS. Where PAYE schemes are absent from the IDBR, we have used sector information from Companies House, linking on employer name where possible. This provides Standard Industrial Classification codes (UK SIC 2007) for employers that have made a claim. Where we have been unable to determine SIC codes, we have reported the sector as ‘unknown’.

The figures for the number and value of claims do not take account of voluntary repayments nor remove claims not paid for compliance reasons. Claims cancelled by employers within 72 hours of making the claim are excluded.

Methodology (cumulative figures - table 1)

The methodology used for the figure for the cumulative number of jobs ever on furlough since the start of the scheme (table 1 above and tables 1, 1a, 1b in the spreadsheet accompanying this release) has been improved.

For figures up to 13 December 2020, the method used was based on the figures for the total number of jobs on furlough on each claim. This choice had to be made because at the time the job-level information available for statistical purposes was incomplete for larger claims.

Over time – and particularly with the introduction of the CJRS extension – the previous method had started to undercount the total number of jobs put on furlough.

The original method took the total number of jobs on furlough from all the claims made by each PAYE scheme. It then found the maximum number of jobs put on furlough for each employer across all their claims. Finally, it summed these values for all PAYE schemes to arrive at a total number of employees ever on furlough.

The new approach uses job-level data. For this, we calculate the number of unique National Insurance numbers in the claims made by each employer, and then sum these. This information is supplemented by the employee’s name and payroll number in a small number of cases.

The cumulative number of employers making CJRS claims is calculated as the number of distinct PAYE schemes that have submitted a claim since the start of the scheme. The cumulative value of claims made is calculated as the sum of the amount claimed for each submitted claim.

Since the introduction of flexible furlough employers have been able to cancel claims made on the CJRS claims portal within 72 hours of making a claim. From the figures dated 15 February 2021 onwards, claims cancelled in this way have been excluded.

The figures for the number and value of claims do not take account of voluntary repayments nor remove claims not paid for compliance reasons. Claims cancelled by employers within 72 hours of making the claim are excluded.

HMRC separately publishes figures for the value of claims paid to employers, in its monthly publication on tax receipts. Those figures are on a cash basis and reflect the time that the payments were made rather than the date that claims were received, so are slightly different to the figures included in this release.

Rounding of figures in the tables accompanying this release

Rounding has been applied to the figures in the tables accompanying this release. Counts are rounded to the nearest 10 for tables 14a and 14b (local authority by age and gender) and tables 17 and 18 (local authority by sector), to the nearest 100 for all other tables. Claim amounts are rounded to the nearest million.

User questions and feedback

We welcome questions and feedback. Our email address is: cjrs.statistics.enquiries@hmrc.gov.uk

Strengths and limitations

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) grants pre-release access to Official Statistics publications, and in accordance with the HMRC policy, pre-release access has been granted to a number of people to enable the preparation of a ministerial briefing. Further details, including a list of those granted access, can be found on HMRC’s website.

We have also published a Background Quality Report (BQR) for the CJRS publications which helps users of the statistics understand their strengths and limitations.

The Business insights and impact on the UK economy statistics (known as BICS) published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are based on a fortnightly survey. The furlough statistics in the BICS publications have been more timely, however they exclude some industry sectors (such as agriculture and finance) and being based on a survey the estimates have a margin of error associated with them.

In contrast to the BICS statistics on furlough the HMRC CJRS statistics are based on administrative data for the whole population of employers that use the CJRS. The HMRC statistics provide more detailed breakdowns of the characteristics of the employers using the scheme, the employees that have been on furlough, and how the use of the furlough scheme changed over time.

Experimental Statistics status

The release is classed as Experimental Statistics as the methodologies used to produce the statistics are still in their development phase. This does not mean that the statistics are of low quality, but it does signify that the statistics are new and still being developed. As the methodologies are refined and improved, there may be revisions to these statistics.

Rather than waiting until the development work has been completed, the statistics are being published now to involve potential users in developing the statistics. We hope that this encourages users to provide us with their thoughts and suggestions of how useful the statistics are and what can be done to improve them. Comments can be sent by email to CJRS.Statistics.Enquiries@hmrc.gov.uk.

More information about what it means for Official Statistics to be classified as Experimental Statistics is available from the Office for Statistics Regulation.

Office for Statistics regulation review

These statistics have been produced quickly in response to developing world events. The Office for Statistics Regulation, on behalf of the UK Statistics Authority, has reviewed them against several key aspects of the Code of Practice for Statistics and regards them as consistent with the Code’s pillars of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value.

Revisions

In future iterations of this statistics release there may be some further revisions reflecting improvements to the data processing and methodology.

The figures in this release incorporate data on claims received by HMRC up to 14 October 2021 and cover employments on furlough up to 30 September 2021. The data for September 2021 is incomplete as late claims for the CJRS extension may still be filed with reasonable excuse and HMRC agreement. Amendments to September 2021 claims could be made until 28 October 2021.

Based on figures for August it is expected that these factors will result in an increase in the level of jobs on furlough reported for September 2021 of about 25,000 jobs. Thus, the figures for September 2021 should therefore be considered provisional results and are likely to be revised slightly upwards in a future release.

Related links

Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, UK: October 2021 - Employee and earnings statistics from PAYE Real Time Information.

Labour market in the regions of the UK: October 2021 - Regional breakdowns of changes in UK employment, unemployment and economic activity.

Employment in the UK: October 2021 - Estimates of employment, unemployment and economic inactivity for the UK.

Average weekly earnings in Great Britain: October 2021 - Estimates of growth in earnings for employees before tax and other deductions from pay.

HMRC coronavirus (COVID-19) statistics - Collection of HMRC data regarding COVID-19 response initiatives and policy.