Big names announce 5,800 jobs are under threat on bleak day
A STRING of big businesses yesterday announced a total of 5,800 potential job losses – as it emerged the economic slump caused by the pandemic has been worse than feared.
Budget airline easyJet announced up to 1,900 possible job cuts, with almost a third of its UK pilots and cabin crew in line for the axe. It also revealed proposals to close bases at Stansted, Newcastle and Southend airports. Unions blasted the plans, saying they “don’t add up”. Aerospace giant Airbus said it is making 1,700 job cuts. The news is a blow to its site at Broughton in north Wales and its other factory at Filton, Glos.
Furniture chain Harveys plunged into administration, with 240 job losses and another 1,330 at risk.
Shirt maker TM Lewin also collapsed, with the loss of 600 jobs. All 66 of its high street stores are set to close although it is believed the firm will continue online.
In better news, 1,900 jobs at Bensons for Beds have been saved. EasyJet has begun a 45-day consultation on its 1,900 possible job losses. They are among 4,500 the firm recently warned could go.
Johan Lundgren, easyJet chief executive, said: “These are very difficult proposals to put forward in what is an unprecedented and difficult time for the airline and the industry as a whole.”
Brian Strutton, general secretary of pilots’ union Balpa, said: “EasyJet paid £174million to shareholders, got agreements to furlough staff to protect cash, got £600m from the Government, has boasted of having £2.4billion in liquidity, and ticket sales are going through the roof so fast they cannot get pilots back off furlough quickly enough. So why the panic? It doesn’t add up.”
It comes as the Office for National Statistics revealed the economic downturn in the first three months of this year was even worse than it first thought.
It now reckons the economy shrank 2.2%, compared with its initial estimate of 2%, and the joint biggest drop for 40 years. The fall comes despite the first quarter accounting for just nine days of the lockdown.
Experts predict the economy collapsed by 20% in the period from April to June.
Meanwhile, the British Chambers of Commerce called for “swift, substantial and immediate action” to bolster the economy, due to “extraordinary contraction”.
The job cuts announced yesterday add to a bloodbath in recent months with the likes of British Airways warning that 12,000 staff face the axe.
Experts fear the number of UK redundancies could get even worse when the Government’s furlough scheme begins to wind down from August.
The Bank of England’s chief economist Andy Haldane struck a more upbeat tone yesterday.
He said the rebound had come “sooner and faster” than predicted, with the economy being boosted by a rise in spending since lockdown restrictions began to ease.