“Revealed: more than 100k redundancies planned so far this year”, 06 June 2021

Hundreds of thousands more jobs are under threat if the furlough scheme is wound down too soon, warns GMB Union

Gary Smith, GMB General Secretary, said:

“A furlough cliff-edge later this year could have dire consequences for employment, and the UK government’s ‘open-mindedness’ over an extension to the job retention scheme needs to become a reality.

“Ministers must learn the lessons of the last fifteen months and take nothing for granted, so extending furlough simply makes sense, providing continued support for employers that will need it to retain jobs and skills.

“A recovery is a process, not an event, and as these findings expose the fragilities in our economy and labour market. It would be negligent of the government to think we can go back to “business as usual”.