Furlough scheme ends, fuelling unemployment fears

1.6m people are still being supported

The UK’s £70bn job retention scheme comes to an end today (30 September), stoking fears of a rise in unemployment figures.

At the peak of the pandemic in May 2020, close to 90m people had been furloughed and were being supported by the scheme. The latest figures from HMRC show 1.6m people are still being supported. While a significant number of businesses that had made use of the scheme during the pandemic have returned to full capacity, there are still some in certain industries such as hospitality that are yet to fully reopen and get back to pre-pandemic levels. Andrew Bailey: MPC ready to hike interest rates before Christmas if inflation keeps rising "Overall, we would expect most furloughed workers...