Great Britain: more than 1 in 5 employers intend to lay off workers due to coronavirus

Job cuts, salary freezes and lower vacancy rates are what await the UK’s pandemic-stricken labor market, according to the latest quarterly analysis from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (human resource management specialist association), released on 18 May. According to the study – conducted jointly with temporary staffing specialist Adecco and for which more than 2,000 employers were surveyed – 22% of companies are intending to lay off staff between now and July, six percentage points higher than the 16% in the previous survey. In terms of hiring intentions, only 40% of companies plan to hire by July, down from 66% in the previous quarter, marking the lowest level since 2005. To cope with this unprecedented crisis, 51% of businesses will rely, at some point, on the State’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme short-time working scheme that was recently extended until October (c.f. article No.11928). 51% of private sector employers are also planning to freeze salaries this year. “It seems that the pain is being directed towards pay and recruitment rather than job losses”, observed Gerwyn Davies, CIPD labor market specialist. The survey also indicates that 61% of companies used teleworking during the crisis and 29% cut training budgets.