Official Statistics

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme statistics: 1 July 2021

Updated 2 July 2021

Overview

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) was announced on 20 March 2020 and has supported employers in paying their employees during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

This is the thirteenth release of Official Statistics on the CJRS. This release provides analysis of claims for periods up to 31 May 2021. The data used includes claims submitted to HMRC by 14 June 2021.

The data for May 2021 is not yet fully complete as while claims relating to May 2021 should have been filed by 14 June 2021, employers could file claims later with the agreement of HMRC if they had a reasonable excuse. Claims for April 2021 could also be amended until 28 June 2021. Together these factors are likely to have a small effect on the statistics.

Based on figures for April, which have been revised since the previous release, it is estimated that the number of employments on furlough reported for May 2021 could increase by around 3%. The May 2021 figures should therefore be considered as provisional and will be revised in a future release.

We will continue to publish statistics on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the CJRS extension in future months. 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.

In addition to figures for the end of April and May, reference tables for the first CJRS extension (1 November 2020 to 30 April 2021) have been published alongside this release. These tables also include figures for use of furlough at the end of each month during the period of the extension, alongside the eligible population for the first CJRS extension. The figures at 30 April 2021 can be found in these reference tables.

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:

• C Breeze

For press queries, please contact:

• D Allen
• L Billard

Next release

The next release will be published on 29 July 2021.

Main points

The key points from this release covering the period to 31 May 2021 are below. Figures for May 2021 are provisional and subject to revision as additional claims for the period are received.

• since the start of the scheme a cumulative total of 11.6 million jobs have been supported by the CJRS at various times. This is across all claims submitted to HMRC by 14 June 2021
• the levels of furlough seen in these figures reflect the easing of restrictions on business activity seen throughout the UK in April and May with the reopening of businesses such as non-essential retail, restaurants and pubs across the UK
• provisional figures show that the number of employments on furlough has decreased by 1.2 million from 30 April to 2.4 million on furlough at 31 May 2021, down from 3.5 million on 30 April. (These figures do not sum exactly due to rounding.) Numbers on CJRS last peaked at 5.1 million in January and have fallen since
• at 31 May 2021, provisional figures show that 30% of employers had staff on furlough, down from 35% at 30 April 2021. Also, at 31 May 2021, 8% of employments eligible for furlough were on furlough (provisional figure), down from 12% at 30 April
• the ten more detailed industry groups with the highest rates of jobs being put on furlough at 31 May 2021 were passenger air transport (57%), hotels and similar accommodation (57%), travel agency and tour operator activities (51%), photographic activities (43%), beverage serving activities (43%), creative; arts and entertainment activities (39%), amusement and recreation activities (37%), renting and leasing of personal and household goods (36%), other reservation service and related activities (33%) and manufacture of wearing apparel (32%)
• across all more detailed industry sectors, the beverage serving activities group saw the largest reduction in jobs on furlough between 30 April and 31 May: a decrease of 179,700. This was followed by the restaurants and mobile food service activities group which saw a reduction of 133,000
• levels of furlough in some sectors with a high take-up decreased at a slower rate. The proportion of jobs on furlough in the industry groups passenger air transport, hotels and similar accommodation, travel agency and tour operator activities, organisation of conventions and trade shows, photographic activities, creative; arts and entertainment activities, and renting and leasing of personal and household goods has decreased at a slower rate than other industry groups also with high take-up rates
• for all employer sizes, the number of employments on furlough decreased across February, March, April and May 2021. The largest reduction is for employers with 250 or more employees where the number of employments on furlough decreased by 532,100 from 1.1 million employments at 30 April 2021 to a provisional estimate of 535,800 at 31 May 2021
• for the first time since the early months of CJRS, more employments were on furlough with male job holders than where the employee was female at the end of May. This reflects decreases in the number of jobs on furlough in sectors such as accommodation and food which have a high proportion of female employees
• across the UK, where it was possible to link the data, 1.72 million females were on furlough at 30 April 2021 compared with 1.67 million males. Provisional estimates show a decrease with 1.13 million females on furlough at 31 May 2021 and 1.20 million males
• eight of the ten local authorities with the highest take-up rates at 31 May 2021 were in London: Newham (15%), Hounslow (14%), Brent (14%), Haringey (13%), Barnet (13%), Redbridge (13%), Waltham Forest (13%) and Ealing (13%). The other two local authority areas in the top ten were Crawley in West Sussex County (14% of eligible jobs on furlough) and South Lakeland in Cumbria (12%)
• London showed higher take-up rates at 31 May than the rest of the country, particularly for male employments. Northern Ireland saw particularly large reductions in levels of furlough between April and May due to the later easing of restrictions
• for all age bands the number of employments on furlough decreased across February to May 2021. The largest reductions in the number of employments on furlough in May have been for younger employees in the 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 age bands
• the proportion of employments on partial furlough increased from 40% at 30 April 2021 to 48% at 31 May. The number of employments on partial furlough decreased between these two dates from 1.4 million to 1.1 million at 31 May. Some employments which were previously on full furlough may have moved to partial furlough as businesses reopened and restrictions eased

About the data in this release

The data used in this release comprises the CJRS claims made up to 14 June 2021. Where possible, this data has been matched with other HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) data to enable additional analysis to be presented. Where we have been unable to match the CJRS claims with other HMRC data we have denoted this as ‘unknown’.

This release presents the total number of employments on furlough each day from March 2020 to May 2021, as well as figures for use of CJRS extension at 30 April and 31 May 2021. Additionally, this release also presents the cumulative number of Pay As You Earn (PAYE) schemes claiming and number of employments on furlough since the start of the scheme up to 14 June 2021, also broken down by local authority and Parliamentary constituency.

The figures at 30 April 2021 are included in the reference tables for the first CJRS extension (1 November 2020 to 30 April 2021) published alongside this release. Those tables also bring together in one place the end of month figures for the extension period – as previously published, alongside the latest figures for the eligible population for the first CJRS extension as first published in the 6 May 2021 release of these statistics.

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.

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.

For these statistics, an ‘employer’ is defined as a PAYE scheme, and ‘employments’ are defined according to the CJRS criteria. Further details are within the background section.

The first three releases of these statistics, published in June, July and August 2020, reported estimates of the total number of jobs that had been on furlough at any time over the March to June period, based on the latest data available at the time of those releases.

With the introduction of flexible furlough on 1 July, this statistical release series began reporting estimates of the number of jobs on furlough each day, with additional breakdowns for the last day in each month.

The ONS BICs statistics are based on fortnightly survey statistics and are more timely, but do not cover the whole population. The HMRC 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 May 2021 are based on claims received to the deadline of 14 June 2021. In some circumstances, late claims can be made with a reasonable excuse and in agreement with HMRC. Claims may also be amended until 28 June 2021. Therefore, the data for May 2021 is incomplete and should be considered provisional.

It is estimated that the overall total number of employments on furlough in May 2021 will be in the region of 3% (around 0.1 million) higher once all claims are submitted and revisions applied.

Where an employer makes a claim for fewer than 16 jobs (fewer than 100 before 27 May 2021), HMRC collects the start and end date of the claim 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 statistics published on 6 May 2021 contained a downward revision to the number of employments eligible for CJRS extension. This is due to a refinement in the methodology and results in a small increase in our estimates of the employer and employment take-up rates.

Alongside this release we have published reference tables containing the number of employments on furlough each month of the first CJRS extension (1 November 2020 to 30 April 2021). These tables contain take-up rates using the updated eligible populations for this extension period, based on the refined methodology.

We will also publish revised figures for the eligible population for the initial CJRS scheme in a future release of these statistics.

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 June 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 11.6 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 at any time since the start of the scheme.

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 June 2021, the deadline for claims relating to May 2021. As well as claims for furlough during May 2021 and earlier, these latest figures also include employments on furlough after May 2021 where the claim was received by 14 June 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

Date	Cumulative number of jobs on furlough (million)	Cumulative number of employers (million)	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

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.

Since February, these figures have been based on job-level data instead of the totals from each claim form submitted by employers. 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.

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 May 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 has decreased by 1.2 million from 30 April to 2.4 million on furlough at 31 May 2021, down from 3.5 million on 30 April. (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 have fallen since
• 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 May 2021

The number of employments on furlough decreased throughout March, April and May 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS data

Employments on furlough over time by industry

This section breaks down the overall time series included above by the employer’s industrial sector. Figure 2 is a set of charts, one for each of 15 industrial sectors experiencing higher numbers of jobs on furlough. The underlying data for this figure and 6 other sector categories not shown in the chart can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

The key points to note from figure 2 are:

• provisional figures show that all sectors saw a reduction in levels of furlough between 30 April and 31 May 2021
• the largest reduction in jobs on furlough was the accommodation and food services sector (398,300 fewer jobs on furlough). At the end of May, 34% of eligible employments in this sector were on furlough. There was also a large reduction in the wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles sector where only 8% of eligible employments were on furlough at the end of May
• furlough peaked in the wholesale and retail sector on 24 April 2020 at 1.85 million employments on furlough. This decreased to 610,100 at 30 April 2021. Provisional figures show this declined by another 46% with 330,900 employments on furlough at 31 May 2021
• accommodation and food services peaked at 1.65 million employments on furlough on 10 April 2020. Latest figures show 987,800 employments on furlough at 30 April 2021, decreasing by 40% to a provisional estimate of 589,500 at 31 May 2021
• the manufacturing sector had a peak of 911,000 employments on furlough on 17 April 2020. This decreased to 248,500 employments on furlough at 30 April 2021. Provisional estimates show that this figure dropped to 194,500 at 31 May 2021
• in construction, furlough peaked on 14 April 2020 with 723,600 employments on furlough and at 30 April 2021 this figure was at 167,600. Provisional estimates show that at the end of May 2021 the number of employments on furlough had decreased to 139,200
• furlough in the arts and entertainment sector peaked later than other sectors on 15 May 2020 with 455,100 employments on furlough on that date. This figure decreased to 233,200 employments on furlough at 30 April 2021. Provisional figures show that this decreased in May with 144,200 employments on furlough at 31 May 2021, a reduction of 38%
• the other service activities sector also saw a reduction of 38% (61,000 employments) between 30 April and 31 May

Figure 2: Total employments on furlough by industry (millions) (largest 15 sectors), October 2020 to May 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Employments on furlough over time by employer size

In addition to the sectoral breakdown we also provide a breakdown of the number of employments on furlough per day by employer size. The employer size has been calculated based on an estimate of the number of employments eligible to be on furlough. We assume a PAYE scheme to be the equivalent of an employer.

Presented in figure 3 is a set of charts, one for each employer size band. The underlying data for these charts can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

The key points to note from figure 3 are:

• for all employer sizes, the number of employments on furlough decreased across February, March, April and May 2021
• the largest reduction is for employers with 250 or more employees where the number of employments on furlough decreased by 532,100 from 1.1 million employments at 30 April 2021 to a provisional estimate of 535,800 at 31 May 2021
• employers with one employment had 161,100 employments on furlough at 30 April 2021. Provisional figures show that this decreased in May to 148,200 employments on furlough at 31 May 2021
• since January, the number of employments on furlough has decreased by a larger proportion amongst large employers. Employers with 250 or more employees have seen a 67% reduction in employments on furlough since the peak in January, in comparison with a 28% reduction amongst employers with one employee. This may reflect the varying impact of the pandemic on businesses of differing sizes

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

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Employments on furlough over time by country and region

This section provides a geographic breakdown of the number of employments on furlough each day from 1 July 2020 up to 31 May 2021. 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).

Presented in figure 4 is a set of charts, one for each region. The underlying data for these charts can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

The key points to note from figure 4 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 May 2021 after sizeable reductions in April 2021. Reductions in Northern Ireland were particularly large in comparison to April due to the later easing of restrictions
• 2.82 million employments were on furlough in England at 30 April 2021. Provisional estimates show that the number of employments on furlough decreased in May to 1.96 million at 31 May 2021
• in London – the English region with the most staff on furlough from July 2020 to May 2021, there were 563,200 employments on furlough at 30 April 2021. Provisional estimates show levels of furlough decreased in May with 419,300 employments on furlough at 31 May 2021
• the number of employments on furlough in Scotland on 30 April 2021 was 275,700. Provisional figures show a decrease in the number of employments on furlough to 173,100 at 31 May 2021
• the number of employments on furlough in Wales was 134,700 at 30 April 2021. Provisional estimates show the number of employments on furlough decreased in May to 88,500 at 31 May 2021
• on 30 April 2021, the number of employments on furlough in Northern Ireland was 92,900. Provisional figures show that the number of employments on furlough decreased to 58,600 at 31 May 2021

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

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Employments on furlough over time by gender

This section provides analysis showing the number of employments on furlough each day from 1 July 2020 up to 31 May 2021, broken down by the claimants’ gender. The underlying data for figure 5 can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet. At present these statistics are only available for 1 July onwards (see the methodology section for more information).

The key points to note from figure 5 are:

• for the first time since the early months of CJRS, more employments have been put on furlough with male job holders than where the employee was female as more female employees returned to work in sectors such as accommodation and food
• for employments where the employee was female, there were 1.72 million employments on furlough at 30 April 2021. Provisional figures show that this decreased throughout May to 1.13 million at 31 May 2021
• for employments where the employee was male, there were 1.67 million employments on furlough at 30 April 2021. Provisional figures show the number of employments on furlough decreased to 1.20 million at 31 May 2021

Figure 5: Total employments on furlough by gender, July 2020 to May 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Employments on furlough over time by age

This section provides analysis for the number of employments on furlough each day from 1 July 2020 up to 31 May 2021, 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 6 is a set of charts, one for each age band. The underlying data for figure 6 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 from figure 6 are:

• for all age bands the number of employments on furlough decreased across February to May 2021
• the largest reductions in the number of employments on furlough in May have been for younger employees in the 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 age bands. The biggest proportionate reduction was for the under 18 age band
• the number of employments on furlough with employees in the 18 to 24 age band was 534,000 at 30 April 2021. At 31 May 2021, provisional figures show that this had reduced to 295,900 employments on furlough in the 18 to 24 age band
• for employments where the employee was aged 25 to 34, the number of employments on furlough was 769,700 at 30 April 2021. Provisional figures show that this figure dropped to 515,900 at 31 May 2021
• where the employee was 65 or over, the number of employments on furlough was 145,500 at 30 April 2021. Provisional estimates show that the number of employments on furlough decreased in May to 122,200 at 31 May 2021

Figure 6: Total employments on furlough (millions) by age of employee, October 2020 to May 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Employments on furlough over time by type of furlough

This section provides a breakdown of the overall time series by employments on full and partial 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 7 starts at 1 July.

The underlying data for figure 7 can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

The key points to note in figure 7 are:

• the number of employments on furlough on a full-time basis was 1.98 million at 30 April 2021. Provisional figures show this decreased in May to 1.22 million employments on full furlough at 31 May 2021
• at 30 April 2021 there were 1.43 million employments on partial furlough. Provisional figures show this decreased in May to 1.12 million employments on partial furlough at 31 May 2021
• the proportion of all jobs on furlough that are on partial furlough has been increasing since February. Some employments which were previously on full furlough may have moved to partial furlough as restrictions eased

Figure 7: Total employments on furlough by furlough type, 1 July 2020 to 31 May 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS data

Employer size at 31 May 2021

Where it has been possible to match CJRS data to Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI), we have estimated the size of each employer in terms of number of employees potentially eligible for CJRS support.

For this data, we have assumed that PAYE scheme is the equivalent to an employer. For some employers, this is not an exact one-to-one equivalent. For example, some organisations operate multiple payrolls for different groups of employees 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.

The employer size has been calculated based on an estimate of the number of employments eligible to be on furlough.

The eligible population at 30 April is different to the eligible population at 31 May due to the new eligibility criteria introduced at the start of the second extension of the CJRS on 1 May 2021. Further details are within the background section.

The key points to note from tables 2a and 2b are:

• at 30 April 2021, 35% of employers had put staff on furlough. Provisional estimates show that this decreased to 30% of employers at 31 May 2021
• at 30 April 2021, employers with 20-49 employees were most likely to have claimed under CJRS to support the furlough of staff, with 52% of employers of this size having at least 1 employee on furlough. Provisional estimates show this was still true at 31 May 2021 with 42% of these employers having staff on furlough
• 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 2a: CJRS claims by employer size as at 30 April 2021

Employer size	Employers with staff on furlough	Take-up rateǂ	Value of claims made for periods from 1 November 2020 to 30 April 2021 (£ million)
1	161,100	22%	839
2 to 4	268,000	38%	2,823
5 to 9	115,600	46%	2,549
10 to 19	63,500	47%	2,437
20 to 49	44,400	52%	2,981
50 to 99	12,600	46%	1,410
100 to 249	7,600	47%	1,434
250+	5,200	48%	5,885
Unknown	600	-	19
Total	678,700	35%	20,377

Table 2b: CJRS claims by employer size as at 31 May 2021 (provisional)

Employer size	Employers with staff on furlough	Take-up rateǂ	Value of claims made for periods from 1 May 2021 to 31 May 2021 (£ million)
1	148,200	20%	117
2 to 4	231,900	33%	358
5 to 9	94,800	39%	290
10 to 19	49,800	38%	248
20 to 49	33,900	42%	262
50 to 99	9,600	37%	109
100 to 249	5,900	38%	101
250+	4,100	39%	453
Unknown	2,500	-	6
Total	580,700	30%	1,943

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

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

The key points to note from tables 2c and 2d are:

• 12% of employments eligible for furlough were on furlough at 30 April 2021. Provisional estimates show this decreased to 8% at 31 May 2021
• employers with 250 or more employees had a total of 1.07 million employments on furlough at 30 April 2021, the highest of all employer sizes. Provisional estimates show this figure decreased by 532,100 to 535,800 at 31 May 2021, the highest of any employer size in May 2021
• medium and large sized businesses have the lowest proportion of eligible employments on furlough. Provisional figures for 31 May 2021 show that employers with 250 or more employees had 3% of eligible employees on furlough. Employers with 2 to 4 employees had the highest proportion of eligible employments on furlough at 24%

Table 2c: Employments on furlough by employer size as at 30 April 2021

Employer size	Employments on furlough	Eligible employmentsǂ	Take-up rateǂ
1	161,100	725,700	22%
2 to 4	513,700	1,745,600	29%
5 to 9	431,800	1,585,500	27%
10 to 19	406,000	1,773,000	23%
20 to 49	479,900	2,530,500	19%
50 to 99	230,800	1,855,700	12%
100 to 249	243,100	2,444,300	10%
250+	1,067,900	16,607,600	6%
Unknown	9,200	-	-
Total	3,543,600	29,268,000	12%

Table 2d: Employments on furlough by employer size as at 31 May 2021 (provisional)

Employer size	Employments on furlough	Eligible employmentsǂ	Take-up rateǂ
1	148,200	750,700	20%
2 to 4	438,500	1,790,800	24%
5 to 9	335,500	1,578,400	21%
10 to 19	289,100	1,729,700	17%
20 to 49	312,900	2,423,100	13%
50 to 99	145,600	1,793,100	8%
100 to 249	152,200	2,376,600	6%
250+	535,800	16,249,700	3%
Unknown	6,300	-	-
Total	2,364,100	28,692,200	8%

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

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Note: the number of employments on furlough in the unknown size category is not directly comparable with the number of employers in the equivalent category in tables 2a and 2c.

Sector at 31 May 2021

This section presents analysis of CJRS claims according to the primary economic sector of employers’ activity. The take-up rate is also reported in this table for both employments and employers. This is presented in tables 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d, below.

Key points from tables 3a and 3b are:

• the accommodation and food services sector had the highest take-up rate at 30 April 2021 at 64% of eligible employers putting staff on furlough. Provisional estimates show this decreased to 52% of employers at 31 May 2021
• the arts, entertainment and recreation sector had the highest take-up rate at 55% at 30 April 2021. This decreased to 45% at 31 May 2021
• at 110,200 the wholesale and retail sector had the largest number of employers putting staff on furlough staff at 30 April 2021. Provisional figures for May 2021 show that this continued to be true with 92,400 employers placing staff on furlough in this sector at 31 May 2021
• at 31 May 2021, the accommodation and food service sector had the highest value of claims since 1 May at £398 million

Table 3a: CJRS claims by sector as at 30 April 2021

Sector	Employers with staff on furlough	Take-up rateǂ	Value of claims made for periods from 1 November to 30 April (£ million)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	4,200	13%	77
Mining and quarrying	300	25%	12
Manufacturing	41,800	41%	1,415
Energy production and supply	400	28%	18
Water supply, sewerage and waste	2,200	38%	70
Construction	73,200	31%	1,183
Wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles	110,200	44%	3,736
Transportation and storage	28,700	38%	1,105
Accommodation and food services	84,600	64%	5,069
Information and communication	34,100	23%	573
Finance and insurance	7,900	23%	153
Real estate	17,300	36%	305
Professional, scientific and technical	88,600	29%	1,297
Administrative and support services	62,000	38%	1,727
Public administration and defence; social security	300	4%	28
Education	15,100	38%	516
Health and social work	27,500	27%	596
Arts, entertainment and recreation	22,600	55%	1,317
Other service activities	44,100	47%	912
Households	1,600	2%	14
Unknown and other	12,000	-	253
Total	678,700	35%	20,377

Table 3b: CJRS claims by sector as at 31 May 2021 (provisional)

Sector	Employers with staff on furlough	Take-up rateǂ	Value of claims made for periods from 1 May 2021 to 31 May 2021 (£ million)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	3,400	10%	6
Mining and quarrying	200	21%	1
Manufacturing	36,200	35%	159
Energy production and supply	300	24%	1
Water supply, sewerage and waste	1,900	32%	7
Construction	63,600	26%	135
Wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles	92,400	36%	253
Transportation and storage	27,000	34%	146
Accommodation and food services	69,200	52%	398
Information and communication	31,900	22%	97
Finance and insurance	7,200	21%	19
Real estate	15,500	31%	33
Professional, scientific and technical	81,000	26%	169
Administrative and support services	55,700	34%	195
Public administration and defence; social security	300	3%	2
Education	13,000	33%	72
Health and social work	23,500	23%	78
Arts, entertainment and recreation	18,600	45%	95
Other service activities	32,900	35%	63
Households	1,300	2%	1
Unknown and other	5,700	-	11
Total	580,700	30%	1,943

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

Key points from tables 3c and 3d are:

• at 31 May 2021, the sector with the highest proportion of its workforce eligible for furlough that were on furlough was the accommodation and food services sector at 34% followed by arts, entertainment and recreation at 29%
• take-up rates across all sectors decreased when comparing figures for 30 April with provisional estimates for 31 May 2021
• at 398,300, the accommodation and food services had the largest decrease in the number of employments on furlough from 30 April to 31 May 2021 (provisional)

Table 3c: Employments on furlough by sector as at 30 April 2021

Sector	Employments on furlough	Take-up rateǂ
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	13,300	7%
Mining and quarrying	1,300	3%
Manufacturing	248,500	11%
Energy production and supply	1,700	1%
Water supply, sewerage and waste	8,800	5%
Construction	167,600	13%
Wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles	610,100	14%
Transportation and storage	174,500	13%
Accommodation and food services	987,800	51%
Information and communication	90,900	7%
Finance and insurance	24,600	2%
Real estate	47,100	11%
Professional, scientific and technical	211,500	10%
Administrative and support services	294,400	12%
Public administration and defence; social security	6,600	<0.5%
Education	92,900	3%
Health and social work	116,700	3%
Arts, entertainment and recreation	233,200	42%
Other service activities	158,900	30%
Households	2,100	2%
Unknown and other	51,000	-
Total	3,543,600	12%

Table 3d: Employments on furlough by sector as at 31 May 2021 (provisional)

Sector	Employments on furlough	Take-up rateǂ
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	8,900	5%
Mining and quarrying	1,100	2%
Manufacturing	194,500	8%
Energy production and supply	1,200	1%
Water supply, sewerage and waste	6,700	4%
Construction	139,200	11%
Wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles	330,900	8%
Transportation and storage	138,700	11%
Accommodation and food services	589,500	34%
Information and communication	81,900	7%
Finance and insurance	21,200	2%
Real estate	37,700	9%
Professional, scientific and technical	182,600	8%
Administrative and support services	221,600	9%
Public administration and defence; social security	3,900	<0.5%
Education	64,700	2%
Health and social work	82,600	2%
Arts, entertainment and recreation	144,200	29%
Other service activities	97,900	19%
Households	1,700	1%
Unknown and other	13,600	-
Total	2,364,100	8%

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

Countries and Regions and gender at 31 May 2021

We also provide a geographic breakdown of CJRS claims 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.

Figures 8a and 8b show the number of employments on furlough by each of the English regions, and the totals for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. For some employments it has not been possible to link the employment to the employees’ area of residence and these are included in the unknown category.

The key points from figures 8a and 8b are:

• London and the South East accounted for 1.02 million of the employments on furlough at 30 April 2021. Provisional estimates show this decreased in May when they accounted for 737,200 of the employments on furlough at 31 May 2021
• at 30 April 2021, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland combined had 503,200 employments claimed for under CJRS. Provisional estimates for 31 May 2021 show a decrease of 182,900 to 320,300 employments on furlough

Figure 8a: Employments on furlough at 30 April 2021, by Country and Region and gender

Region	Female	Male	Total
London	267,800	295,400	563,200
South East	240,100	220,200	460,300
North West	178,200	179,400	357,600
East of England	160,900	142,700	303,600
West Midlands	138,800	137,600	276,500
South West	147,000	129,900	276,900
Yorkshire And The Humber	125,500	121,700	247,200
East Midlands	114,900	104,500	219,400
North East	58,900	59,500	118,400
Wales	67,900	66,800	134,700
Scotland	142,600	133,100	275,700
Northern Ireland	47,100	45,700	92,900

Figure 8b: Employments on furlough at 31 May 2021 (provisional), by Country and Region and gender

Region	Female	Male	Total
London	193,000	226,300	419,300
South East	158,800	159,100	317,900
North West	115,600	129,600	245,100
East of England	107,200	104,300	211,500
West Midlands	93,000	101,800	194,800
South West	91,800	87,400	179,200
Yorkshire And The Humber	79,100	85,400	164,500
East Midlands	75,100	75,200	150,300
North East	36,700	43,800	80,500
Wales	43,700	44,800	88,500
Scotland	86,300	86,900	173,100
Northern Ireland	28,300	30,300	58,600

Source: HMRC CJRS data and PAYE Real Time Information

Figures 9a and 9b show the take-up rates of employments on furlough within each country and region using CJRS with a gender breakdown.

The key points to note from figures 9a and 9b are:

• there was broad consistency in furlough rates across the nations and regions of the UK at the end of April 2021 with London having the highest take-up rate of 14% against the UK average of 12%. Provisional estimates show that this was also true at the end of May 2021 with London having the highest take-up rate at 11% against a UK average of 8%
• as shown in figures 9a and 9b, the take-up rate is similar for males and females within all regions and countries of the UK at 30 April and 31 May 2021
• in London, the male employments had a higher take-up rate with 12% of eligible employments on furlough in comparison to the UK average of 8%. This is largely due to a higher take-up rate for male employments in the construction and manufacturing sectors in London in comparison to the rest of the UK

Figure 9a: Employment furlough take-up rate at 30 April 2021, by Country and Region and gender

Region	Female	Male
London	13%	15%
South East	12%	11%
North West	11%	11%
East of England	12%	10%
West Midlands	11%	11%
South West	12%	11%
Yorkshire And The Humber	11%	11%
East Midlands	11%	10%
North East	11%	11%
Wales	11%	11%
Scotland	12%	11%
Northern Ireland	12%	13%

Figure 9b: Employment furlough take-up rate at 31 May 2021 (provisional), by Country and Region and gender

Region	Female	Male
London	10%	12%
South East	8%	8%
North West	7%	8%
East of England	8%	8%
West Midlands	8%	8%
South West	8%	7%
Yorkshire And The Humber	7%	8%
East Midlands	7%	7%
North East	7%	8%
Wales	7%	7%
Scotland	7%	8%
Northern Ireland	7%	8%

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

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

The data for figures 8a, 8b, 9a and 9b can be accessed from the accompanying spreadsheet.

Local authority and Parliamentary constituency and gender at 31 May 2021

Accompanying this release is a spreadsheet providing counts of the number of employments on furlough by local authority and UK Parliamentary constituency based on each employee’s residential address.

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

In figures 10a and 10b we present maps representing the take-up rates for employments on furlough for local authorities at 30 April and 31 May 2021 (provisional figures). Darker shades indicate a higher take-up rate.

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

• eight of the ten local authorities with the highest take-up rates at 31 May 2021 were in London: Newham (15%), Hounslow (14%), Brent (14%), Haringey (13%), Barnet (13%), Redbridge (13%), Waltham Forest (13%) and Ealing (13%). Crawley in West Sussex County (14% of eligible jobs on furlough) and South Lakeland in Cumbria (12%)
• Barrow-in-Furness, Boston and North Kesteven in Lincolnshire County, Fenland, Na h-Eileanan Siar and Shetland Islands had the lowest take-up rate at 5%
• at 40,300, Birmingham had the highest number of employments on furlough, a take-up rate of 10%
• in Scotland, Glasgow City, City of Edinburgh, South Ayrshire and Highland had the highest take-up rates at 9%
• for Northern Ireland, the Newry, Mourne and Down local authority had the highest take-up rate at 10%
• in Wales, Conwy had the highest take-up rate at 10%

Figure 10a: Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 30 April 2021, by Local Authority

Figure 10b: Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 31 May 2021 (provisional), 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

In figures 11a and 11b we present maps representing take-up rates for employments on furlough for UK Parliamentary constituencies at 30 April and 31 May 2021 (provisional figures). Darker shades indicate a higher take-up rate.

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

• the London constituencies of East Ham, Feltham and Heston, Tottenham and Hayes and Harlington had the highest take-up rates at 15%
• the take-up rates were lowest in Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Plymouth, Moor View, North East Cambridgeshire, Devizes, Wantage and Great Grimsby at 5%
• West Ham constituency had the highest number of employments on furlough with 11,800
• in Northern Ireland, South Down had the highest take-up rate of 10%
• in Scotland, Glasgow Central had the highest take-up rate at 11%
• in Wales the Aberconwy and Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituencies had the highest take-rates at 11%

Figure 11a: Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 30 April 2021, by Parliamentary constituency

Figure 11b: Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 31 May 2021 (provisional), 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

Age and gender at 31 May 2021

This section of the release describes the number of employments on furlough at 30 April 2021 by employees’ age and gender and provisional estimates at 31 May 2021. This breakdown is based on the most up-to-date demographic information that HMRC holds on the individuals for whom claims have been made.

The age of employees is calculated as 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 onwards.

The key points to note from figures 12a and 12b are:

• the proportion of females on furlough has reduced for all age bands from 30 April to 31 May
• the largest reductions in the number of employments on furlough in May have been for younger employees in the 18 to 24, 25 to 29, 30 to 34 age bands with larger reductions for females than males
• at 31 May 2021 provisional estimates show that there were 154,000 females and 141,800 males on furlough in the 18 to 24 age band. This is the age band with the highest number of jobs on furlough for both females and males, and at this time was the only age band with more females than males on furlough other than the under 18 age band

Figure 12a: Employments on furlough at 30 April 2021, by age and gender of employee (age at 1 November 2020)

Age band	Female	Male
Under 18	50,200	31,500
18 to 24	290,400	243,500
25 to 29	190,000	195,500
30 to 34	188,700	195,500
35 to 39	179,000	183,500
40 to 44	162,500	168,800
45 to 49	162,400	160,900
50 to 54	170,900	161,100
55 to 59	151,600	145,200
60 to 64	107,100	108,900
65 and over	68,700	76,800

Figure 12b: Employments on furlough at 31 May 2021 (provisional), by age and gender of employee (age at 1 May 2021)

Age band	Female	Male
Under 18	15,500	11,000
18 to 24	154,000	141,800
25 to 29	119,000	130,300
30 to 34	126,600	140,000
35 to 39	125,300	137,400
40 to 44	116,400	129,800
45 to 49	112,600	122,600
50 to 54	120,400	125,600
55 to 59	107,200	112,500
60 to 64	77,900	86,500
65 and over	56,100	66,100

Source: HMRC CJRS data and PAYE Real Time Information

Figure 13 shows the take-up rates of employments on furlough broken down by age and gender. The age of employees is calculated as at 1 November 2020 for employments on furlough from 1 November to 30 April and at 1 May 2021 for employments on furlough from 1 May onwards.

The key points to note from figure 13 are:

• the under 18 age band had the highest take-up rate for both female and males at 30 April 2021, 30% and 22% respectively
• provisional estimates for 31 May 2021 show that the under 18 age band continued to have the highest take-up rates for females at 14% but the 65 and over age band had the highest take-up rate for males at 12%
• provisional estimates for 31 May 2021 show that take-up rates decreased across all age bands from 30 April

Figure 13: Employment furlough take-up rate at 30 April 2021 and 31 May 2021, by age and gender of the employee

(age at 1 November 2020 for 30 April 2021 take-up rate, age at 1 May 2021 for 31 May 2021 take-up rate)

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

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Region and sector at 31 May 2021

Tables 17g and 17 in the accompanying spreadsheet show the number of employments on furlough by local authority and region by sector at 30 April and provisional estimates at 31 May 2021.

The key points to note are:

• at 31 May 2021, across all countries and regions except the North East, the accommodation and food services sector had the highest number of employments on furlough, followed by the wholesale and retail sector
• for the North East accommodation and food services sector had the highest number of employments on furlough followed by the manufacturing sector
• in London, 28% of the employments on furlough were in the accommodation and food services sector on 30 April 2021. Provisional estimates show this was similar in May at 26% at 31 May 2021
• Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland combined had 141,600 employments on furlough in the accommodation and food services sector at 30 April 2021. Provisional estimates show this decreased to 85,700 at 31 May 2021

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.

It works by providing grants to employers of up to a maximum 80% of salary to a maximum value of £2,500 per employee (until the end of August). Up to the end of July, the scheme also met some of the cost of employer pension contributions and employer National Insurance Contributions.

The scheme is based around HMRC’s Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system. For an employer to qualify for the scheme they need to have created a PAYE scheme by 19 March 2020. In these statistics, an employer is defined as a PAYE scheme.

The rules for an employment to qualify to be covered by the scheme are set out in guidance, and two of the key rules are that the employee must have been employed on 19 March 2020 and the employer must have submitted a Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC for the employee by this date.

Up to date information about the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme can be found on GOV.UK. 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 July 2020

The scheme closed to new entrants from 30 June 2020. After this date, employers have only been able to furlough employees that were on furlough for a full three-week period prior to 30 June 2020.

As a consequence of the closure of the scheme to additional employees and the minimum three-week furlough period that applied until the end of June, the final date that an employer could have put an employee on furlough for the first time was 10 June 2020.

Employers had until 31 July 2020 to make any claims in respect of the period to 30 June 2020. A small number of claims have been made since this date. These claims relate to exceptions as set out in the CJRS guidance (for example, for employees being put on furlough who have been absent from work and who had been paid Statutory Maternity Pay).

From 1 July 2020, employers have had the flexibility to bring employees who are on furlough back to work part time. Additionally, employers have the flexibility to decide the hours and shift patterns of their employees – with the government continuing to pay 80% of salaries for the hours they do not work.

From 1 September 2020, the scheme supported 70% of salaries for hours not worked, reducing to 60% from 1 October 2020.

When claiming the CJRS grant for hours where the employee is on furlough, employers need to report and claim for a minimum period of a week. Employers had until 30 November 2020 to submit claims for support from the CJRS.

Changes to the scheme from 1 November 2020

The CJRS scheme was extended from 1 November 2020. The rules for an employment to qualify to be covered by the extended scheme are set out in guidance.

The two key rules are that the employee must have been employed on 30 October 2020, and the employer must have submitted a Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC for the employee between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee.

This may differ where they have made employees redundant, or they stopped working for the employer on or after 23 September 2020 and have subsequently been re-employed.

For claim periods from 1 November to 30 April 2021, employers with a PAYE scheme can claim 80% of an employee’s usual hours worked, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month. The £2,500 cap is proportional to the hours not worked.

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 submitted 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 will be able to claim 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 is proportional to the hours not worked.

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

Further information about the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme can be found on GOV.UK.

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 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.

These statistics are classed as Experimental Statistics as they are still in development.

Additional data from HMRC’s 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 June 2021 for support for the wages of staff on furlough up to 31 May 2021. The data for May 2021 is incomplete as claims relating to May 2021 may still be filed and amended; thus, the figures for May 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 June 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 June 2021 where the claim had been received by 14 June.

Methodology (except table 1)

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

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 November 2020 to 30 April 2021, the numbers of jobs presented as ‘eligible employments’ and used to calculate take-up figures reflect the criteria for eligibility for the first extension to the CJRS scheme.

They are based on a list of employees employed on 30 October 2020 and included in PAYE Real Time Information submissions for 20 March 2020 to 30 October 2020. Only employments in RTI submissions received by HMRC by 30 October are counted.

Following the criteria for qualifying for the scheme, this is supplemented by a list of people who were employed on 23 September 2020 but who left their job before 30 October and who were later re-employed by the same employer.

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 statistics published on 6 May 2021 contained a downward revision to the number of employments eligible for first CJRS extension (1 November 2020 to 30 April 2021). This is due to a refinement in the methodology and results in a small increase in our estimates of the employer and employment take-up rates.

Alongside this release we have published reference tables containing the number of employments on furlough each month of the first CJRS extension (November 2020 to April 2021). These tables contain take-up rates using the eligible populations for this extension period.

We will also publish revised figures for the eligible population for the original furlough scheme (for March 2020 to October 2020) in a future release of these statistics.

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.

Employers making claims for 16 or more employees at a time (100 or more before 27 May 2021) are required to submit the details of the employees on furlough in a spreadsheet-type file. While these claims have been processed from a customer service perspective, the processing of this information for these statistics has been complex and the processing of data on some employments has not been completed. This is a factor behind the unknown category in the tables.

The completeness of this data available for use in the production of these statistics has gradually improved over time.

The geographic and flexible furlough breakdowns of employments include all employees that employers have put on furlough where it has been possible to link claim data on employments on furlough 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 the tables and maps use a postcode lookup file from Office for National Statistics (ONS) data to link UK postcodes to geographic areas.

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 time series in this bulletin show figures for the number of employments on furlough each day, using all claims submitted to HMRC by 14 June 2021.

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 100 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 and may in certain circumstances very slightly undercount. Consequently, for the period to the end of June, the time series presented in this bulletin may typically slightly undercount the number of employments on furlough.

Where an employer makes a claim for fewer than 16 jobs (or fewer than 100 jobs before 27 May 2021), HMRC collects the start and end date of the claim 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 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 17 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.

Strengths of the data

The data used in this release includes all claims made by employers up until 14 June 2021 for support for the wages of staff on furlough up to 31 May 2021, rather than a sample. We have linked CJRS data to Pay As You Earn Real Time Information data (PAYE RTI) to provide the additional information presented in this release.

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

Based on figures for April it is expected that these factors will result in an increase in the level of jobs on furlough reported for May 2021 of about 3%. Thus, the figures for May 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: June 2021 - Employee and earnings statistics from PAYE Real Time Information.

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

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

Average weekly earnings in Great Britain: June 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.