Official Statistics

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme statistics: 7 October 2021

Published 7 October 2021

Overview

Latest figures for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) show that there were 440,000 employers with 1.3 million staff on furlough on 31 August 2021. This is a decrease of 260,000 jobs from 31 July when there were 1.6 million employments on furlough.

These statistics provide analysis of claims for support in paying the wages of staff on furlough for periods up to 31 August 2021. The data used includes claims submitted to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) by 14 September 2021.

A new breakdown of furlough by annual pay band has been included in this release as well as in table 21 of the accompanying spreadsheet.

Support for paying the wages of staff on furlough was available from the CJRS for periods up to 30 September 2021 when the scheme closed. We will publish further statistics on the Scheme, including on furlough in September 2021, next month on 4 November.

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.

See guidance on applying for support from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and further details.

Contact details

For queries or feedback on this publication, please contact:

For press queries, please contact:

Next release

The next release will be published on 4 November 2021.

Main points

The key points from this release covering the period to 31 August 2021 are below. Figures for August 2021 are provisional and subject to revision of around 20,000 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 September 2021
  • provisional figures show that the number of employments on furlough was 1.3 million at 31 August 2021. This is a decrease of 260,000 from 31 July when the number of employments on furlough was 1.6 million. (These figures do not sum exactly due to rounding.) Numbers on furlough last peaked at 5.1 million in January 2021 and have since fallen by 3.7 million
  • at 31 August 2021, provisional figures show that 23% of employers had staff on furlough, down from 25% at 31 July 2021. Also, at 31 August 2021, 5% of employments eligible for furlough were on furlough (provisional figure), down from 6% at 31 July
  • the lower levels of furlough seen in these figures reflect the easing of restrictions on business activity seen throughout the UK in recent months
  • the arts, entertainment and recreation sector and the other service activities sector had the highest take-up rates of all the sectors. Both of these sectors had 12% of employments eligible for furlough on furlough at 31 August 2021. The accommodation and food services sector saw the largest reduction in the number of employments on furlough between 31 July and 31 August although 11% of eligible employments in this sector were still on furlough at the end of August
  • the ten more detailed industry groups with the highest rates of jobs being put on furlough at 31 August 2021 were passenger air transport (44%), travel agency and tour operators (40%), photographic activities (34%), manufacture of wearing apparel (25%), creative; arts and entertainments activities (24%), printing and service activities relating to printing (23%), organisation of conventions and trade shows (23%), other reservation service and related activities (22%), retail sale via stalls and markets (21%), and reproduction of recorded media (20%). All of these sectors saw a reduction in the use of furlough between the end of July and the end of August
  • for all employer sizes, the number of employments on furlough decreased across February, March, April, May, June, July and August 2021. Use of furlough has decreased faster among larger employers in recent months. Most recently, the largest reduction was for employers with 250 or more employees where the number of employments on furlough decreased by 78,900 from 264,700 employments at 31 July 2021 to a provisional estimate of 185,800 (1% take-up) at 31 August 2021
  • the employer take-up rate for the largest employers with 100 or more jobs has reduced from 56% in January to 25% at the end of August
  • more employments were on furlough with male job holders than where the employee was female through May, June, July and August 2021. This reflects decreases in the number of jobs on furlough in sectors which have a higher proportion of female employees, such as accommodation and food services
  • six of the ten local authorities that had the highest proportion of eligible jobs on furlough in August were near airports. Hounslow (9%), Ealing (8%) and Hillingdon (8%) near Heathrow Airport, Newham (9%) and Redbridge (9%) near London City Airport and Crawley (8%) near Gatwick Airport. Local authorities in North London made up the other four of the top ten. These were: Barnet (9%), Brent (9%), Enfield (8%) and Harrow (8%)
  • for all age bands the number of employments on furlough decreased across February to August 2021. The largest reductions in the number of employments on furlough in June and July were for younger employees in the under 18, 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 age bands. At the end of August, the 65 and over age band had the highest proportion of employments on furlough (7% of eligible employments in the age band) with 78,100 employments on furlough
  • the number of employments on flexible furlough reduced by 20% in August compared to a 12% reduction for those on full furlough

About the data in this release

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

This release presents the total number of employments on furlough each day from March 2020 to August 2021, as well as figures for use at of CJRS extension at 31 July and 31 August 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 14 September 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.

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. These statistics are 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 has changed over time.

Key limitations and revisions

The figures for August 2021 are based on claims received to the deadline for claims for August of 14 September 2021. In some circumstances, late claims can be made with a reasonable excuse and in agreement with HMRC. Claims for August could also be amended until 28 September. Therefore, the data for August 2021 is incomplete and should be considered provisional. It is estimated that the overall total number of employments on furlough in August 2021 will be in the region of 20,000 jobs higher once all claims are submitted and revisions applied.

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 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.

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 14 September 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 there have been 11.7 million unique jobs covered by claims for support from the CJRS since its inception. 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 September 2021, the deadline for claims relating to August 2021. As well as claims for furlough during August 2021 and earlier, these latest figures also include employments on furlough after August 2021 where the claim was received by 14 September 2021.

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

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.

All the figures in this table together with the figures previously published as management information on the main HMRC COVID-19 statistics page can be found in table 1 of the spreadsheet that accompanies this release. In addition, figures on the cumulative number of jobs put on furlough broken down by local authority and Parliamentary constituency can also be found in tables 1a and 1b of the spreadsheet that accompanies this release.

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 31 August 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:

  • provisional figures show that the number of employments on furlough was 1.3 million at 31 August 2021. This is a decrease of 260,000 from 31 July when the number of employments on furlough was 1.6 million. (These figures do not sum exactly due to rounding)
  • before this, 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, rose again to 5.1 million employments on furlough at 19 January 2021 and has fallen since
  • at 31 August 2021, provisional figures show that 23% of employers had staff on furlough, down from 25% at 31 July 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 31 August 2021

The number of employments on furlough decreased throughout March, April, May, June, July and August 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 experiencing high levels of furlough. Tables 2a and 2b show the take-up rates for eligible employments in each sector at 31 August and 31 July 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 July and 31 August
  • the arts, entertainment and recreation sector and the other service activities sector had the highest take-up rates of all the sectors, with 12% of employments eligible for furlough on furlough at 31 August 2021
  • the accommodation and food services sector saw the largest reduction in the number of employments on furlough between 31 July and 31 August. There were 193,800 employments on furlough (11% of those eligible) in this sector at 31 August 2021, a reduction of 69,900
  • the construction sector has a relatively high take-up rate of 8% and has been slower than other sectors to reduce the number of employments on furlough in August

Figure 2: Total employments on furlough by industry (millions) (largest 15 sectors in decreasing order of size at 31 August), October 2020 to August 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Table 2a: Employments on furlough by sector as at 31 August 2021 (provisional)

Sector (SIC 2007 section) Employments on furlough Take-up rateǂ
Agriculture, forestry and fishing 4,100 2%
Mining and quarrying 600 1%
Manufacturing 134,700 6%
Energy production and supply 800 1%
Water supply, sewerage and waste 4,200 2%
Construction 100,700 8%
Wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles 195,000 4%
Transportation and storage 104,000 8%
Accommodation and food services 193,800 11%
Information and communication 52,900 4%
Finance and insurance 13,500 1%
Real estate 25,900 6%
Professional, scientific and technical 126,100 6%
Administrative and support services 138,300 6%
Public administration and defence; social security 1,300 <0.5%
Education 42,600 1%
Health and social work 55,100 1%
Arts, entertainment and recreation 59,200 12%
Other service activities 62,500 12%
Households 1,000 1%
Unknown and other 8,300 -
Total 1,324,600 5%

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

Sector (SIC 2007 section) Employments on furlough Take-up rateǂ
Agriculture, forestry and fishing 5,200 3%
Mining and quarrying 800 2%
Manufacturing 157,300 7%
Energy production and supply 800 1%
Water supply, sewerage and waste 4,800 3%
Construction 115,000 9%
Wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles 228,000 5%
Transportation and storage 125,600 10%
Accommodation and food services 263,700 15%
Information and communication 58,200 5%
Finance and insurance 15,300 1%
Real estate 29,000 7%
Professional, scientific and technical 140,600 6%
Administrative and support services 163,600 7%
Public administration and defence; social security 1,900 <0.5%
Education 51,500 2%
Health and social work 65,100 2%
Arts, entertainment and recreation 74,300 15%
Other service activities 73,600 14%
Households 1,200 1%
Unknown and other 12,300 -
Total 1,587,900 6%

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:

  • the ten more detailed industry groups with the highest rates of jobs being put on furlough at 31 August 2021 were passenger air transport (44%), travel agency and tour operators (40%), photographic activities (34%), manufacture of wearing apparel (25%), creative; arts and entertainments activities (24%), printing and service activities relating to printing (23%), organisation of conventions and trade shows (23%), other reservation service and related activities (22%), retail sale via stalls and markets (21%), and reproduction of recorded media (20%)
  • across all more detailed industry sectors, the beverage serving activities group saw the largest reduction in jobs on furlough between 31 July and 31 August: a decrease of 30,300. This was followed by the restaurants and mobile food service activities group which saw a reduction of 21,400, and hotel and similar accommodation reducing by 11,200
  • the take-up rates in some industry groups is decreasing at a slower rate than others. The proportion of jobs on furlough in the industry groups photographic activities, manufacture of wearing apparel, printing and service activities related to printing, other reservation service and related activities, and organisation of conventions and trade shows remain relatively high and have not reduced in August as much as the take-up in other industry groups

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 31 July 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:

  • for all employer sizes, the number of employments on furlough decreased across February, March, April, May, June, July and August 2021
  • use of furlough has decreased faster among larger employers in recent months
  • most recently the largest reduction was for employers with 250 or more employees where the number of employments on furlough decreased by 78,900 from 264,700 employments at 31 July 2021 to a provisional estimate of 185,800 at 31 August 2021
  • employers with one employment had 126,300 employments on furlough at 31 July 2021. Provisional figures show that this decreased only slightly in August to 116,000 employments on furlough at 31 August 2021
  • employers with 2 to 4 employees had the highest proportion of eligible employments on furlough at 18%. Medium and large sized businesses have the lowest proportion of eligible employments on furlough. Provisional figures for 31 August 2021 show that employers with 250 or more employees had 1% of eligible employees on furlough
  • between January and the end of August, the number of employments on furlough decreased by a larger proportion amongst large employers. Employers with 250 or more employees have seen an 89% reduction in employments on furlough since the peak in January, in comparison with a 44% reduction amongst employers with one employee. This may reflect the varying impact of the pandemic on businesses of differing sizes
  • the employer take-up rate for the largest employers with 100 or more jobs has reduced from 56% in January to 25% at the end of August

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

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Table 3a: Employments on furlough by employer size at 31 August 2021 (provisional)

Employer size Employments on furlough Eligible employmentsǂ Take-up rateǂ
1 116,000 750,700 15%
2 to 4 327,300 1,790,800 18%
5 to 9 216,400 1,578,400 14%
10 to 19 166,500 1,729,700 10%
20 to 49 167,200 2,423,100 7%
50 to 99 70,500 1,793,100 4%
100 to 249 70,000 2,376,600 3%
250+ 185,800 16,249,700 1%
Unknown 4,900 - -
Total 1,324,600 28,692,200 5%

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

Employer size Employments on furlough Eligible employmentsǂ Take-up rateǂ
1 126,300 750,700 17%
2 to 4 361,100 1,790,800 20%
5 to 9 249,100 1,578,400 16%
10 to 19 197,600 1,729,700 11%
20 to 49 203,500 2,423,100 8%
50 to 99 88,400 1,793,100 5%
100 to 249 88,800 2,376,600 4%
250+ 264,700 16,249,700 2%
Unknown 8,400 - -
Total 1,587,900 28,692,200 6%

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 31 August 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 significantly in August 2021 after sizeable reductions in May, June and July. The largest proportionate reduction was in the Scotland and North East of England
  • there were 1.32 million employments on furlough in England at 31 July 2021. Provisional estimates show that the number of employments on furlough decreased in August to 1.12 million at 31 August 2021
  • in London – the English region with the most staff on furlough from July 2020 to August 2021, there were 299,200 employments on furlough at 31 July 2021. London had the smallest proportionate decrease in August and the highest take-up rate with provisional figures showing 263,100 employments on furlough on 31 August
  • the number of employments on furlough in Scotland on 31 July 2021 was 117,300. Provisional figures show a decrease in the number of employments on furlough to 93,900 at 31 August 2021
  • the number of employments on furlough in Wales was 55,100 at 31 July 2021. Provisional estimates show the number of employments on furlough decreased in August to 46,000 at 31 August 2021
  • on 31 July 2021, the number of employments on furlough in Northern Ireland was 36,400. Provisional figures show that the number of employments on furlough decreased to 29,700 at 31 August 2021
  • there was broad consistency in furlough rates across the nations and regions of the UK at the end of July 2021 with London having the highest take-up rate of 8% against the UK average of 6%
  • provisional estimates show that this was also true at the end of August 2021 with London having the highest take-up rate at 7% against a UK average of 5%

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

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Figure 5: Employments on furlough at 31 August 2021 (provisional), by Country and Region and gender

Region Female Male Total
London 119,500 143,600 263,100
South East 89,000 92,000 181,000
North West 61,200 71,100 132,300
East of England 58,900 61,400 120,300
West Midlands 52,400 66,700 119,000
South West 43,500 43,400 87,000
Yorkshire And The Humber 40,400 48,300 88,700
East Midlands 40,700 44,300 85,000
North East 18,300 24,100 42,400
Wales 21,600 24,500 46,000
Scotland 45,700 48,200 93,900
Northern Ireland 14,500 15,300 29,700

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Figure 6: Employment furlough take-up rate at 31 August 2021 (provisional), by Country and Region and gender

Region Female Male
London 6% 7%
South East 4% 5%
North West 4% 5%
East of England 4% 5%
West Midlands 4% 5%
South West 4% 4%
Yorkshire And The Humber 4% 4%
East Midlands 4% 4%
North East 3% 5%
Wales 3% 4%
Scotland 4% 4%
Northern Ireland 4% 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 July and provisional estimates at 31 August 2021.

The key points to note are:

  • at 31 August 2021, the accommodation and food services sector and wholesale and retail sectors have the largest number of employments on furlough across most countries and regions. However, in the North East and West Midlands the manufacturing sector has the largest number of employments on furlough
  • in London, 1 in 5 of the employments on furlough were in the accommodation and food services sector on 31 July 2021. Provisional estimates show this remained approximately the same in August

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 July and 31 August 2021 (provisional figures). Darker shades indicate a higher take-up rate.

The key points to note for local authorities at 31 August 2021 (provisional figures) are:

  • six of the ten local authorities with the highest proportion of eligible jobs on furlough in August were near airports. Hounslow (9%), Ealing (8%) and Hillingdon (8%) near Heathrow Airport, Newham (9%) and Redbridge (9%) near London City Airport and Crawley (8%) near Gatwick Airport. Local authorities in North London made up the other four of the top ten. These were: Barnet (9%), Brent (9%), Enfield (8%) and Harrow (8%)
  • the local authorities which saw the largest decrease in levels of furlough between 31 July and 31 August were Knowsley and Liverpool in Merseyside Metropolitan County. These areas saw reductions in the number of employments on furlough of 34% and 30% respectively
  • at 26,700, Birmingham had the highest number of employments on furlough, a take-up rate of 6%
  • in Scotland, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City, Aberdeen City, South Ayrshire and Renfrewshire had the highest take-up rates at 5%
  • for Northern Ireland, the Newry, Mourne and Down local authority had the highest take-up rate at 5%
  • in Wales, take-up rates were very similar across local authorities at 4% with Isle of Anglesey, Caerphilly, Ceredigion, Newport and Torfaen at 3%

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

Figure 7b:Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 31 July 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 July and 31 August 2021 (provisional figures). Darker shades indicate a higher take-up rate.

The key points to note for UK Parliamentary constituencies at 31 August 2021 (provisional figures) are:

  • the London constituencies of Ilford South, Hayes and Harlington, Feltham and Heston, East Ham, Finchley and Golders Green and Enfield Southgate had the highest take-up rates at 10%
  • West Ham constituency had the highest number of employments on furlough with 6,900
  • in Northern Ireland, Newry and Armagh, and South Down had the highest take-up rate of 5%
  • in Scotland, Glasgow Central had the highest take-up rate at 6%
  • in Wales the Aberconwy, and Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituencies had the highest take-rates at 5%

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

Figure 8b: Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 31 July 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 31 August 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 where the employee was female through May, June, July and August. 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 employments where the employee was female, there were 739,500 employments on furlough at 31 July 2021. Provisional figures show that this decreased throughout August to 617,200 at 31 August 2021
  • for employments where the employee was male, there were 822,800 employments on furlough at 31 July 2021. Provisional figures show the number of employments on furlough decreased to 697,300 at 31 August 2021

Figure 9: Total employments on furlough by gender, July 2020 to August 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, 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 July and 31 August 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 a new extended breakdown of age by local authority and gender, which can be found in tables 14a and 14b. New 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 across February to August 2021. The largest reductions in the number of employments on furlough in July and August were for younger employees in the under 18, 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 age bands
  • take-up rates for the youngest age bands - under 18 and 18 to 24 - decreased dramatically in May and June 2021 and are now lower than other age bands. This reduction is in line with the easing of restrictions across the UK, particularly in hospitality
  • take-up rate for the 65 and over age band reduced more slowly than for the youngest age groups through July and August. Thus, at the end of August this age band had the highest take-up of all age groups
  • the 65 and over age band had take-up rates of 7% and 8% for female and male employments at 31 August 2021, in comparison with the 4% and 5% respectively for the total female and male populations

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

The take-up rate for the youngest age bands decreased dramatically in May and June 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Figure 11: Employments on furlough at 31 July and 31 August 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 July and 31 August 2021, 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, 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.

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

The key points to note are:

  • the number of employments on full furlough was 826,200 at 31 July 2021. Provisional figures show this decreased in August to 727,700 employments on full furlough at 31 August 2021
  • at 31 July 2021 there were 746,000 employments on flexible furlough. Provisional figures show this decreased in August to 595,100 employments on flexible furlough at 31 August 2021
  • the proportion of all jobs on furlough that are on flexible furlough has been increasing since February and levelled off in June and July 2021. Some employments which were previously on full furlough may have moved to flexible furlough as restrictions eased
  • the number of employments on flexible furlough reduced by 20% in August compared to a 12% reduction for those on full furlough

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

Source: HMRC CJRS data

Estimated annual pay (employments)

This release includes a new breakdown of employments by annual pay band on 31 July and 31 August (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 not 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 31 August 2021 (provisional) and 31 July 2021.

The key points to note are:

  • half of employments on furlough at 31 August (provisional) had estimated annual pay less than £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 August (9%)

Table 4a: Employments on furlough by estimated annual pay at 31 August 2021 (provisional)

Estimated annual pay (employments) Employments on furlough Eligible employmentsǂ Take-up rateǂ
£0 - £5,000 71,900 1,687,500 4%
£5,000 - £10,000 332,700 3,857,300 9%
£10,000 - £15,000 261,300 3,765,600 7%
£15,000 - £20,000 169,000 4,087,100 4%
£20,000 - £25,000 138,100 3,701,200 4%
£25,000 - £30,000 101,500 2,791,200 4%
£30,000 - £35,000 64,100 2,066,100 3%
£35,000 - £40,000 47,100 1,580,100 3%
£40,000 - £45,000 30,000 1,190,100 3%
£45,000 - £50,000 18,900 833,200 2%
£50,000 - £60,000 21,400 1,040,300 2%
£60,000 - £70,000 9,900 570,500 2%
£70,000 - £80,000 6,500 360,300 2%
£80,000 - £90,000 4,100 248,000 2%
£90,000 - £100,000 3,100 180,000 2%
£100,000+ 15,900 728,000 2%
Unknown 28,900 - -
Total 1,324,600 28,692,200 5%

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

Estimated annual pay (employments) Employments on furlough Eligible employmentsǂ Take-up rateǂ
£0 - £5,000 94,800 1,687,500 6%
£5,000 - £10,000 385,900 3,857,300 10%
£10,000 - £15,000 306,100 3,765,600 8%
£15,000 - £20,000 207,500 4,087,100 5%
£20,000 - £25,000 168,300 3,701,200 5%
£25,000 - £30,000 120,400 2,791,200 4%
£30,000 - £35,000 75,900 2,066,100 4%
£35,000 - £40,000 54,900 1,580,100 3%
£40,000 - £45,000 34,500 1,190,100 3%
£45,000 - £50,000 22,500 833,200 3%
£50,000 - £60,000 24,500 1,040,300 2%
£60,000 - £70,000 11,300 570,500 2%
£70,000 - £80,000 7,200 360,300 2%
£80,000 - £90,000 4,500 248,000 2%
£90,000 - £100,000 3,400 180,000 2%
£100,000+ 17,200 728,000 2%
Unknown 48,900 - -
Total 1,587,900 28,692,200 6%

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 commonly been referred to 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 were 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 defined within this release as a Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Scheme. In some circumstances this does not map directly 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 September 2021 for support for the wages of staff on furlough up to 31 August 2021. The data for August 2021 is incomplete as claims relating to August 2021 could still be filed and amended; thus, the figures for August 2021 should therefore be considered provisional results and will be revised in future releases.

The cumulative figures presented in tables 1, 1a and 1b cover all claims made up to 14 September 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 September.

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 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, and may in certain circumstances very slightly undercount, 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 completeness of this data available for use in the production of these statistics has gradually improved over time.

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, with counts 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), and to the nearest 100 for all other tables. 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.

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 September 2021 and cover employments on furlough up to 31 August 2021. The data for August 2021 is incomplete as late claims for the CJRS extension may still be filed with reasonable excuse and HMRC agreement. Amendments to August 2021 claims could be made until 28 September 2021.

Based on figures for July it is expected that these factors will result in an increase in the level of jobs on furlough reported for August 2021 of about 20,000 jobs. Thus, the figures for August 2021 should therefore be considered provisional results and are likely to be revised slightly upwards in a future release.

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

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

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

Average weekly earnings in Great Britain: September 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.