Fifth of bosses expect to axe 10% of workers by the end of the year – with legal office and health staff most at risk
A FIFTH of bosses expect to axe 10% of workers by the end of the year - with legal and health workers among those most at risk.
Medium and large-sized firms are most likely to cut jobs, with 1% fearing they may have to let their entire workforce go, according to YouGov research.
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Workers in the hospitality and travel sectors have so far suffered the most damage in terms of job losses owing to coronavirus restrictions.
But following the survey of more than 1,100 key decision makers at UK firms, there are now fears thousands more employees are set to lose their jobs too.
The grim data reveals that almost a quarter of bosses in white collar industries such as media, medical services and accounting believe they will have to cut around 10% of employees by the end of the year.
Nearly a fifth (17%) of education-based businesses - regardless of size - could make cuts of between 20% and 29% of their workforce by the New Year, the survey found.
Meanwhile, almost a third of bosses at UK legal firms believe they will have to cut up to 9% of their staff.
Around a quarter of bosses in marketing, health services and finance also believe they'll have to make 10% cuts to their workforce by the end of the 2020.
Among bosses at large businesses (more than 250 members of staff), 27% said they believed they would have to cut up to 9% per cent of their workforce by the end of December.
Promisingly, only 6% of microbusinesses (between one and ten employees) expect to shed 9% from the workforce and 70% of bosses said they didn't plan to cut jobs at all.
Scotland and Wales are believed to be the areas that will be hardest hit by job losses, the data revealed.
It comes as unemployment figures from the Office for the National Statistics (ONS) this week revealed the pandemic has sparked the biggest surge in UK unemployment in more than a decade.
Official figures show a 138,000 rise between June and August — the largest since 2009.
Thousands of job losses are expected at the end of the month when the government's furlough scheme ends.
What is Rishi Sunak’s Job Support Scheme, who is eligible and how do I apply?
- To be eligible, employees must be working at least a third of their contracted hours and be paid for those hours in full by their employer.
- For the two thirds of the other hours not worked, the Government will pay a third - so 22 per cent of their overall wages.
- The employer will have to pay the other third of it. It means with the third they are already paying, they will have to fork out 55 per cent of the total wages.
- The scheme will start on November 1 - the day after the other furlough scheme ends.
- It's open to all small and medium sized businesses, even if they didn't use the furlough scheme beforehand.
- The Job Support Scheme will only help those on the PAYE pay roll. Self-employed workers have been given more time to pay their tax bill and extra grant help.
- It's likely that employees won't have to apply - and the employers will do the work for them.
- Employers were previously able to claim back the wages from the HMRC portal.
The chancellor has unveiled a new package, the Job Support scheme, to replace it from November 1 which offers targeted help in areas where businesses have had to shut due to local lockdowns.
Workers will get up to two-thirds of wages paid for hours they can't work due to reduced hours because of restrictions and a drop in demand.
The scheme was also extended last week to cover employees in lockdown areas where businesses are forced to shut, who will see the state pay for up to 66% of wages.
But the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) predicts that Rishi Sunak's support packages will only save 230,000 jobs, with 1.8billion workers facing the axe.
So far, the furlough scheme is estimated to have cost the taxpayer £210billion, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).
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The Treasury has also admitted that the new rescue package for local areas would run into the billions of pounds over the next six months.
Gourmet Burger Kitchen today announced it will close 26 restaurants and axe 362 jobs despite being saved from administration.
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It makes GBK just one in a long line of restaurant chains to struggle with the effects of the pandemic with Byron Burger, Bella Italia and Cafe Rouge, and Pizza Express all making site closure and job cuts.