Quarter of million NI workers furloughed

JUST under a quarter of a million employed workers in Northern Ireland have been signed up to the government’s job retention scheme since lockdown, figures have shown.

And economist Paul MacFlynn said that withdrawing the scheme — as the government intends to do at the end of October — without any support to take its place will amount to “masochism”.

It means that nearly one in three of all workers at companies in the province are having their wages paid by the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month.

And another 78,000 self-employed people have applied for the government’s self-employed income support scheme (SEISS).

The self-employed support scheme had the greatest take-up among eligible people in Northern Ireland out of the whole of the UK, with 81% taking up the grant. The government has paid out £223m to Northern Ireland people under the SEISS.

A total of 327,600 workers are now on the two schemes — around 38% of the total number of 870,000 workers as recorded in Northern Ireland’s labour market report for this month.

However, the figures do not reflect the number of people who have come off furlough since most parts of the economy began to open from July onwards.

Mid Ulster claimed the highest percentage of its workforce on furlough, at 36%. And along with Newry, Mourne and Down, Mid Ulster also claimed the joint biggest percentage of workers claiming on the SEISS, at 83%. The lowest proportion of the eligible workforce on furlough was in Derry City and Strabane, with 29%.

Mr Macflynn, senior economist at the Nevin Economic Research Institute, said a sectoral breakdown of those on furlough here showed some worrying trends.

He said that even though construction had been one of the first parts of the economy to reopen, the sector had 71% of its workers on furlough.

In England, only 58% of construction workers were on furlough.

Mr Macflynn said it was hard to judge the true state of employment from the figures.

Employers will have to start contributing to monthly wage packets for furloughed workers from this month.

Mr Macflynn said: “The results in October will be the first real hit, after employers have to start contributing, at that point the floodgates will burst.

“I can see the argument for removing the furlough scheme because we are dealing with a very different economic crisis now compared to what we thought in March. However, removing the furlough scheme without putting something as substantial in place seems like masochism at this point.”

Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said the schemes had helped thousands of hard-working people.