Ending UK furlough scheme may cost ‘1.2m jobs’, think tank predicts

Experts say keeping wage subsidy programme ‘might have paid for itself’ by preventing redundancies

Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak visits a Jobcentre Plus in east London 
(Image credit: Anthony Upton/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The government’s decision to end the furlough scheme is a “mistake” that could trigger the loss of 1.2 million jobs by the end of this year, a leading think tank has warned.

Amid faltering hopes of a V-shaped economic recovery, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (Nieser) says that continuing the wage subsidy programme “might have paid for itself” by saving jobs and protecting skills.

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Joe Evans is the world news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. He joined the team in 2019 and held roles including deputy news editor and acting news editor before moving into his current position in early 2021. He is a regular panellist on The Week Unwrapped podcast, discussing politics and foreign affairs. 

Before joining The Week, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the UK and Ireland for German newspapers and magazines. A series of features on Brexit and the Irish border got him nominated for the Hostwriter Prize in 2019. Prior to settling down in London, he lived and worked in Cambodia, where he ran communications for a non-governmental organisation and worked as a journalist covering Southeast Asia. He has a master’s degree in journalism from City, University of London, and before that studied English Literature at the University of Manchester.