Almost three in 10 put on furlough

ALMOST three in every 10 South Wales workers were furloughed by the end of June, new figures have shown.

The latest official figures have revealed 378,400 workers across Wales have been furloughed under the UK Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – 29% of all employees in the nation. That’s slightly lower than the UK average of 31%.

Across South Wales, Bridgend county saw the highest proportion of workers furloughed, with 30% (18,700 employees) being paid under the government scheme.

Cardiff saw the lowest workforce proportion at 27%, although its figure of 43,100 was the highest total number of Wales’ 22 local authority areas.

Elsewhere, 28,900 workers were furloughed in Rhondda Cynon Taf, 11,700 in Torfaen, and 8,300 in Blaenau Gwent – all representing 29% of their area’s workforce.

Caerphilly saw 21,200 workers furloughed (28%), Vale of Glamorgan 15,600 (27%), Swansea 27,000 (27%), Newport 19.400 (27%) and Merthyr Tydfil 7,100 (27%).

Gwynedd has the highest proportion of workers furloughed, with 34% of jobs put on furlough.

More than three quarters of selfemployed workers in Wales have also benefited from the SelfEmployment Income Support Scheme (77%), with £289m of support handed out so far.

Across the UK,

9.4 million workers have been placed on furlough, at a cost of £26.5bn.

Britain’s hospitality and restaurant sectors have been most affected, with 73% of workers reliant on the furlough scheme.

The arts, entertainment and construction industries are also heavily dependent on the scheme, which is due to end on October 31.

The total number of people claiming unemployment benefits fell slightly by 28,000 in June, to 2.6 million people.