Almost 4,500 jobs lost in first two days of month thanks to Covid- 19

NEARLY 4,500 jobs have been lost at major British employers in only the first two working days in August, as businesses continue to feel the fallout from the impact of the Covid- 19 pandemic.

Dixons Carphone, Pizza Express,

Hays Travel and DW Sports have all announced major redundancies, or plans that could put hundreds of jobs at risk.

It comes as many businesses have to decide whether to keep staff who have been on furlough on their books as the Government’s coronavirus job retention scheme starts to unwind. More than 26,000 jobs were lost at British employers in July, according to analysis by the PA news agency.

It was a small decrease from June when almost 30,000 jobs were lost at British employers when stripping out the effects of BP and HSBC, whose combined 45,000 jobs losses announced in July will be spread around the world. In May, around 36,000 job losses were announced.

The list of job losses only counts the biggest job cuts that have been announced to the public, so shows only a small part of the devastation to the UK economy. Thousands more positions have likely been lost at smaller firms.

According to figures published by the Office for National Statistics) last month, the number of workers on company payrolls in the UK fell by 649,000 between March and June. Companies have been struggling to stay in business through the coronavirus crisis, and many have closed their doors for good as they fall into administration.

Others have managed to hang on, but have closed shops, laid off staff and often tried to renegotiate rents with their landlords.