Official Statistics

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme statistics: 3 June 2021

Published 3 June 2021

Overview

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) was announced on 20 March 2020 and has supported employers in paying their employees during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

This is the twelfth release of Official Statistics on the CJRS. This release provides analysis of claims for periods up to 30 April 2021. The data used includes claims submitted to HMRC by 14 May 2021.

The data for April 2021 is not yet fully complete as while claims relating to April 2021 should have been filed by 14 May 2021, employers could file claims later with the agreement of HMRC if they had a reasonable excuse. Claims for April 2021 can also be amended until 28 May 2021. Together these factors are likely to have a small effect on the statistics.

Based on figures for March, which have been revised since the previous release, it is estimated that the number of employments on furlough reported for April 2021 could increase by around 3%. The April 2021 figures should therefore be considered as provisional and will be revised in a future release.

We will continue to publish statistics on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the CJRS extension in future months. These statistics are Experimental Statistics and are subject to revisions. Further information on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the compilation of these statistics and the meaning of the term Experimental Statistics is provided later in this publication.

See guidance on applying for support from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and further details.

Contact details

For queries or feedback on this publication, please contact:

• C Breeze

For press queries, please contact:

• D Allen
• L Billard

Next release

The next release will be published on 1 July 2021.

Main points

The key points from this release covering the period to 30 April 2021 are below. Figures for April 2021 are provisional and subject to revision as additional claims for the period are received.

• provisional figures show the number of employments on furlough has decreased by 900,000 from 31 March to 3.4 million employments on furlough at 30 April 2021. Numbers on CJRS last peaked at 5.1 million in January and have fallen since
• since the start of the scheme a cumulative total of 11.5 million jobs have been supported by the CJRS at various times. This is across all claims submitted to HMRC by 14 May 2021
• the levels of furlough seen in these figures reflect the easing of restrictions on business activity seen throughout the UK in March and April with the reopening of businesses such as non-essential retail, and partial re-opening of restaurants and pubs in England, Wales and Scotland. There was also some easing of restrictions in Northern Ireland in April
• at 31 March 2021, 39% of employers had staff on furlough. Provisional estimates show that this decreased to 35% of employers at 30 April 2021. On 31 March, 15% of employments eligible for furlough were on furlough, provisional estimates show this had decreased to 12% at 30 April 2021
• the ten industry groups with the highest employment take-up rates at 30 April 2021 were beverage serving activities (70%), hotels and similar accommodation (65%), passenger air transport (55%), photographic activities (51%), travel agency and tour operator activities (49%), amusement and recreation activities (46%), sports activities (45%), creative; arts and entertainment activities (44%), renting and leasing of personal and household goods (43%) and manufacture of wearing apparel (41%)
• across sectors, the retail sale of other goods in specialised stores saw the largest reduction in the number of employments on furlough, with a decrease of 109,100 employments on furlough between 31 March and 30 April 2021. This was followed by the beverage serving activities group which saw a reduction of 72,500 employments on furlough
• the take-up in industry groups such as travel agency and tour operator activities, creative arts and entertainment activities, photographic activities, and renting and leasing of personal and household goods has decreased at a slower rate than other industry groups also with high take-up rates
• across all employer sizes, the number of employments on furlough has decreased throughout February, March and April 2021. The largest reduction is for employers with 250 or more employees where the number of employments on furlough decreased by 414,800 from 1.40 million employments at 31 March 2021 to a provisional estimate of 985,400 at 30 April 2021
• across the UK, where it was possible to link the data, 2.17 million females were on furlough at 31 March 2021 compared with 1.99 million males. Provisional estimates show a decrease with 1.68 million females on furlough at 30 April 2021 and 1.64 million males
• the ten local authorities with the highest take-up rates at 30 April are South Lakeland (19%) and Eden (16%) in Cumbria, Scarborough (16%), Crawley (16%) and the London authorities of Newham (18%), Brent (17%), Haringey (17%), Hounslow (17%), Barnet (16%), and Waltham Forest (16%)
• the under 18 age band had the highest take-up rate for both female and males at 31 March 2021, 39% and 28% respectively. Provisional estimates for 30 April 2021 show that the under 18 age band continued to have the highest take-up rates at 29% for females and 22% for males
• the proportion of employments on partial furlough increased from 29% at 31 March to 41% at 30 April 2021. The number of employments on partial furlough increased to 1.4 million at 30 April from 1.3 million at 31 March 2021 . Some employments which were previously on full furlough may have moved to partial furlough as businesses reopened restrictions eased. This is consistent with the easing of restrictions on business activity in Spring 2021

About the data in this release

The data used in this release comprises the CJRS claims made up to 14 May 2021. Where possible, this data has been matched with other HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) data to enable additional analysis to be presented. Where we have been unable to match the CJRS claims with other HMRC data we have denoted this as ‘unknown’.

This release presents the total number of employments on furlough each day from March 2020 to April 2021, as well as figures for use at of CJRS extension at 31 March and 30 April 2021. This release also presents the cumulative number of PAYE schemes claiming and number of employments on furlough since the start of the scheme up to14 May 2021, also broken down by local authority and Parliamentary constituency.

The data presented in this release comes from combining details about furlough from the job level data and the total number of staff on furlough included in each claim.

These statistics have been developed taking into account user feedback and requests. We would welcome any further feedback from users. This should be sent to CJRS.Statistics.Enquiries@hmrc.gov.uk. Responses will then be taken into consideration when developing future releases.

For these statistics, an ‘employer’ is defined as a PAYE scheme, and ‘employments’ are defined according to the CJRS criteria. Further details are within the background section.

The first three releases of these statistics, published in June, July and August 2020, reported estimates of the total number of jobs that had been on furlough at any time over the March to June period, based on the latest data available at the time of those releases. With the introduction of flexible furlough on 1 July, this statistical release series began reporting estimates of the number of jobs on furlough each day, with additional breakdowns for the last day in each month.

The ONS BICs statistics are based on fortnightly survey statistics and are more timely. The HMRC statistics are based on administrative data for the whole population of employers that use the CJRS. The HMRC statistics provide more detailed breakdowns of the characteristics of the employers using the scheme and the employees that have been on furlough, and how the use of the furlough scheme has changed over time.

Key limitations and revisions

The figures for April 2021 are based on claims received to the deadline of 14 May 2021. In some circumstances, late claims can be made with a reasonable excuse and in agreement with HMRC. Claims may also be amended until 28 May 2021. Therefore, the data for April 2021 is incomplete and should be considered to be provisional. It is estimated that the overall total number of employments on furlough in April 2021 will be in the region of 3% (around 0.1 million) higher once all claims are submitted and revisions applied.

Where an employer makes a claim for up to 99 jobs, HMRC collects the start and end date of the claim but does not collect specific separate furlough start and end dates for each job covered by the claim. For these jobs, we use the claim period to estimate when the jobs were on furlough. This works well for jobs on furlough for the whole period of affected claims. However, if a job was on furlough for 1 April to 11 April only, for example, due to this data limitation, it would appear to be on furlough for the full month in these statistics. During periods when the number of jobs on furlough is decreasing over time, this will lead to the number of jobs on furlough at the end of the month being somewhat overstated.

The statistics published on 6 May 2021 contained a downward revision to the number of employments eligible for CJRS extension. This is due to a refinement in the methodology and results in a small increase in our estimates of the employer and employment take-up rates.

In the next CJRS statistics release, which will cover claims received by 14 June, we will publish final figures for the number of people on furlough each month of CJRS extension (to end-April). This will include take-up rates using the refined methodology for the eligible population. We will also publish revised figures for the eligible population for the original scheme with a future release of these statistics.

Cumulative totals

This section of the release presents the cumulative number of jobs on furlough since the start of the scheme in March 2020 up to 14 May 2021. It also includes figures for the cumulative number of PAYE schemes that have claimed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the total amount claimed.

Table 1 shows that there have been 11.5 million unique jobs supported by the CJRS since its inception. This is a cumulative figure and covers all jobs on furlough at any time since the start of the scheme.

As described in detail in the methodology section of this release, the methodology used to calculate the number of jobs on furlough since the start of the scheme was improved for the February release of these statistics. Since February, these figures are now based on job-level data instead of the totals from each claim form submitted by employers. As a result, the figures in table 1 are not directly comparable with the management information published before the February release.

This methodology change does not affect published figures on the number of jobs on furlough at the end of each month, or the more detailed statistics on the number of jobs on furlough each day.

An individual employed by more than one employer is counted once for each employment from which they have been put on furlough. Two individuals who have been employed in the same role with an employer at different times are counted as two separate employments. In this release the terms ‘employments’ and ‘jobs’ are used interchangeably.

The most recent figures in table 1 are based on claims received up to 14 May 2021, the deadline for claims relating to April 2021. As well as claims for furlough during April 2021 and earlier, these latest figures also include employments on furlough after April 2021 where the claim was received by 14 May 2021.

Table 1 also includes the total number of employer PAYE schemes that had claimed support up to 14 May 2021 and the value of claims submitted. The figures for the number and value of claims do not take account of voluntary repayments nor remove claims not paid for compliance reasons. Claims cancelled by employers within 72 hours of making the claim are excluded.

All these figures together with the figures previously published as management information on the main HMRC COVID-19 statistics page can be found in table 1 of the spreadsheet that accompanies this release. In addition, figures on the cumulative number of jobs put on furlough broken down by local authority and Parliamentary constituency can also be found in tables 1a and 1b of the spreadsheet that accompanies this release.

Table 1: Cumulative claims and jobs on furlough since the start of the CJRS

Date	Cumulative number of jobs on furlough (million)	Cumulative number of employers (million)	Cumulative amount claimed (£ billion)
At 15 February 2021	11.2	1.3	53.8
At 15 March 2021	11.4	1.3	57.7
At 14 April 2021	11.5	1.3	61.3
At 14 May 2021	11.5	1.3	64.0

Source: HMRC CJRS data

Employments on furlough over time

This section of the release presents the number of employments on furlough each day from the scheme’s start up to 30 April 2021.

Where an employer makes a claim for up to 99 jobs, HMRC collects the start and end date of the claim but does not collect specific separate furlough start and end dates for each job covered by the claim. For these jobs, we use the claim period to estimate when the jobs were on furlough. This works well for jobs on furlough for the whole period of affected claims. However, if a job was on furlough for 1 April to 11 April only, for example, due to this data limitation, it would appear to be on furlough for the full month in these statistics. During periods when the number of jobs on furlough is decreasing over time, this will lead to the number of jobs on furlough at the end of the month being somewhat overstated.

The chart in figure 1 shows the number of jobs on furlough under claims for support to the CJRS. The underlying data for this figure can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

Key points to note from figure 1 are:

• provisional figures show that the number of employments on furlough has decreased by 900,000 from 31 March to 3.4 million on furlough at 30 April 2021, down from 4.3 million on 31 March. Numbers on CJRS last peaked at 5.1 million in January and have fallen since
• before this, the number of employments on furlough peaked at 8.9 million on 8 May 2020. This figure fell to 2.4 million at 31 October and then rose again to 4.9 million employments on furlough at 31 January 2021
• the levels of furlough seen in these figures reflect the changes to restrictions on individuals, households and businesses across the UK since the autumn

Figure 1: Total employments on furlough, 23 March 2020 to 30 April 2021

The number of employments on furlough decreased gradually throughout March and then more substantially in April 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS data

Employments on furlough over time by industry

This section breaks down the overall time series included above by the employer’s industrial sector. Figure 2 is a set of charts, one for each of 15 industrial sectors experiencing higher numbers of jobs on furlough. The underlying data for this figure and 6 other sector categories not shown in the chart can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

The key points to note from figure 2 are:

• provisional figures show that all sectors saw a reduction in levels of furlough between 31 March and 30 April 2021. The largest reduction in jobs on furlough was the wholesale and retail sector (234,500 fewer jobs on furlough). At the end of April, 14% of eligible employments in this sector were on furlough. There were large reductions in the accommodation and food services, and arts and entertainment although take-up rates still remain high across these sectors
• furlough peaked in the wholesale and retail sector on 24 April 2020 at 1.85 million employments on furlough. This decreased to 837,300 at 31 March 2021. Provisional figures show this declined again with 602,800 employments on furlough at 30 April 2021
• accommodation and food services peaked at 1.65 million employments on furlough on 10 April 2020. Latest figures show 1.11 million employments on furlough at 31 March 2021, decreasing to a provisional estimate of 932,600 at 30 April 2021
• the manufacturing sector had a peak of 911,000 employments on furlough on 17 April 2020. This decreased to 276,800 employments on furlough at 31 March 2021. Provisional estimates show that this figure dropped to 246,300 at 30 April 2021
• in construction, furlough peaked on 14 April 2020 with 723,600 employments on furlough and at 31 March 2021 this figure was at 198,300. Provisional estimates show that at the end of April 2021 the number of employments on furlough had decreased to 166,600
• furlough in the arts and entertainment sector peaked later than other sectors on 15 May 2020 with 455,100 employments on furlough on that date. This figure decreased to 299,300 employments on furlough at 31 March 2021. Provisional figures show that this decreased in April with 230,200 employments on furlough at 30 April 2021

Figure 2: Total employments on furlough by industry (millions) (largest 15 sectors), 23 March 2020 to 30 April 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Employments on furlough over time by employer size

In addition to the sectoral breakdown we also provide a breakdown of the number of employments on furlough per day by employer size. The employer size has been calculated based on an estimate of the number of employments eligible to be on furlough. We assume a PAYE scheme to be the equivalent of an employer.

Presented in figure 3 is a set of charts, one for each employer size band. The underlying data for these charts can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

The key points to note from figure 3 are:

• across all employer sizes, the number of employments on furlough has decreased throughout February, March and April 2021
• the largest reduction is for employers with 250 or more employees where the number of employments on furlough decreased by 414,800 from 1.40 million employments at 31 March 2021 to a provisional estimate of 985,400 at 30 April 2021
• employers with 20 to 49 employments had 572,200 employments on furlough at 31 March 2021. Provisional estimates show that the number of employments on furlough decreased through April to 474,300 at 30 April 2021
• employers with one employment had 182,700 employments on furlough at 31 March 2021. Provisional figures show that this decreased in April to 160,200 employments on furlough at 30 April 2021

Figure 3: Total employments on furlough (millions) by employer size (number of employees), 23 March 2020 to 30 April 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Employments on furlough over time by country and region

This section provides a geographic breakdown of the number of employments on furlough each day from 1 July 2020 up to 30 April 2021. This is based on the residential address information that HMRC holds for employees. This does not directly translate to the employee’s usual place of work, or employer’s centre of operations which may be in a different region.

For example, an employee who lives in Wales and normally commutes daily to work in Bristol would be included within the count for Wales, rather than for South West England. At present these statistics are only available for 1 July onwards (see methodology section for more information).

Presented in figure 4 is a set of charts, one for each region. The underlying data for these charts can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

The key points to note from figure 4 are:

• across all English regions, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland provisional figures show that the number of employments on furlough decreased significantly in April 2021 after slight reductions from February to March 2021. Reductions were less marked in Northern Ireland than the rest of the UK due to the later easing of restrictions
• 3.48 million employments were on furlough in England at 31 March 2021. Provisional estimates show that the number of employments on furlough decreased in April to 2.76 million at 30 April 2021
• in London – the English region with the most staff on furlough from July 2020 to April 2021, there were 670,700 employments on furlough at 31 March 2021. Provisional estimates show levels of furlough decreased in April with 551,300 employments on furlough at 30 April 2021
• the number of employments on furlough in Scotland on 31 March 2021 was 333,400. Provisional figures show a decrease in the number of employments on furlough to 269,800 at 30 April 2021
• the number of employments on furlough in Wales was 163,400 at 31 March 2021. Provisional estimates show the number of employments on furlough decreased in April to 131,900 at 30 April 2021
• on 31 March 2021, the number of employments on furlough in Northern Ireland was 102,200. Provisional figures show that the number of employments on furlough decreased to 90,000 at 30 April 2021

Figure 4: Total employments on furlough (millions) by country and region, 1 July 2020 to 30 April 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Employments on furlough over time by gender

This section provides analysis showing the number of employments on furlough each day from 1 July 2020 up to 30 April 2021, broken down by the claimants’ gender. The underlying data for figure 5 can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet. At present these statistics are only available for 1 July onwards (see the methodology section for more information).

The key points to note from figure 5 are:

• since 1 July, more employments have been put on furlough with female job holders than where the employee was male. The gap narrowed in April as more female employees returned to work in sectors such as accommodation and food
• for employments where the employee was female, there were 2.17 million employments on furlough at 31 March 2021. Provisional figures show that this decreased throughout April to 1.69 million at 30 April 2021
• for employments where the employee was male, there were 1.99 million employments on furlough at 31 March 2021. Provisional figures show the number of employments on furlough decreased to 1.64 million at 30 April 2021

Figure 5: Total employments on furlough by gender, 1 July 2020 to 30 April 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Employments on furlough over time by age

This section provides analysis for the number of employments on furlough each day from 1 July 2020 up to 30 April 2021, broken down by age band. The claimant’s age is calculated at 1 March 2020 for employments on furlough up to 31 October, and at 1 November 2020 for employments on furlough from 1 November onwards.

Figure 6 is a set of charts, one for each age band. The underlying data for figure 6 can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet. At present these statistics are only available for 1 July onwards (see methodology section for more information).

The key points to note from figure 6 are:

• across all age bands the number of employments on furlough decreased throughout February, March and April 2021. The largest reductions have been for younger employees in the under 18 and 18 to 24 age bands
• for employments where the employee was aged 25 to 34, the number of employments on furlough was 943,400 at 31 March 2021. Provisional figures show that this figure dropped to 751,000 at 30 April 2021
• the number of employments on furlough with employees in the 18 to 24 age band was 684,700 at 31 March 2021. At 30 April 2021, provisional figures show that 514,400 employments were on furlough in the 18-24 age band
• where the employee was 65 or over, the number of employments on furlough was 172,600 at 31 March 2021. Provisional estimates show that the number of employments on furlough decreased in April to 144,000 at 30 April 2021

Figure 6: Total employments on furlough (millions) by age of employee, 1 July 2020 to 30 April 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Employments on furlough over time by type of furlough

This section provides a breakdown of the overall time series by employments on full and partial furlough. On 1 July, the option was introduced for employers to furlough their employees for part of their usual hours, with the employee free to work the remainder. Therefore, the time series shown in figure 7 starts at 1 July.

The underlying data for figure 7 can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

The key points to note in figure 7 are:

• the number of employments on furlough on a full-time basis was 2.92 million at 31 March 2021. Provisional figures show this decreased in April to 1.95 million employments on full furlough at 30 April 2021
• at 31 March 2021 there were 1.27 million employments on partial furlough at 31 March 2021. Provisional figures show this increased at the beginning of April and fell slightly towards the end of the month to 1.39 million employments on partial furlough at 30 April 2021
• this means that a higher proportion of jobs were on partial furlough in April 2021 than January, February and March. Some employments which were previously on full furlough may have moved to partial furlough as restrictions eased. This is consistent with the easing of restrictions on business activity in Spring 2021

Figure 7: Total employments on furlough by furlough type, 1 July 2020 to 30 April 2021

Source: HMRC CJRS data

Employer size at 30 April 2021

Where it has been possible to match CJRS data to Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI), we have estimated the size of each employer in terms of number of employees potentially eligible for CJRS support.

For this data, we have assumed that PAYE scheme is the equivalent to an employer. For some employers, this is not an exact one-to-one equivalent. For example, some organisations operate multiple payrolls for different groups of employees and in other situations, a group of companies may pool their payrolls together under one PAYE scheme. However, in our view PAYE schemes provides a reasonable proxy for employers for the purposes of this release.

The employer size has been calculated based on an estimate of the number of employments eligible to be on furlough.

The key points to note from tables 2a and 2b are:

• at 31 March 2021, 39% of employers had put staff on furlough. Provisional estimates show that this decreased to 35% of employers at 30 April 2021
• at 31 March 2021, employers with 20-49 employees were most likely to have claimed under CJRS to support the furlough of staff, with 59% of employers of this size having at least 1 employee on furlough. Provisional estimates show this was still true at 30 April 2021 with 51% of these employers having staff on furlough
• the figures for the number and value of claims do not take account of voluntary repayments nor remove claims not paid for compliance reasons. Claims cancelled by employers within 72 hours of making the claim are excluded

Table 2a: CJRS claims by employer size as at 31 March 2021

Employer size	Employers furloughing staff	Take-up rateǂ	Value of claims made for periods from 1 November to 31 March (£ million)
1	182,700	25%	715
2 to 4	301,500	43%	2,415
5 to 9	129,300	51%	2,193
10 to 19	70,700	52%	2,104
20 to 49	50,200	59%	2,586
50 to 99	14,800	54%	1,231
100 to 249	9,100	56%	1,262
250+	6,100	56%	5,214
Unknown	500	-	13
Total	764,900	39%	17,733

Table 2b: CJRS claims by employer size as at 30 April 2021 (provisional)

Employer size	Employers furloughing staff	Take-up rateǂ	Value of claims made for periods from 1 November 2020 to 30 April 2021 (£ million)
1	160,200	22%	838
2 to 4	266,700	38%	2,820
5 to 9	114,900	46%	2,546
10 to 19	63,100	47%	2,436
20 to 49	44,000	51%	2,977
50 to 99	12,500	46%	1,409
100 to 249	7,500	46%	1,431
250+	5,200	48%	5,873
Unknown	500	-	17
Total	674,700	35%	20,347

ǂ The take-up rates are based on employments eligible for the CJRS extension.

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

The key points to note from tables 2c and 2d are:

• 15% of employments eligible for furlough were on furlough at 31 March 2021. Provisional estimates show this decreased to 12% at 30 April 2021
• employers with 250 or more employees had a total of 1.40 million employments on furlough at 31 March 2021, the highest of all employer sizes. Provisional estimates show this figure decreased by 414,800 to 985,400 at 30 April 2021, the highest of any employer size in April 2021
• medium and large sized businesses have the lowest proportion of eligible employments on furlough. Provisional figures for 30 April 2021 show that employers with 250 or more employees had 6% of eligible employees on furlough. Employers with 2 to 4 employees had the highest proportion of eligible employments on furlough at 29%

Table 2c: Employments on furlough by employer size as at 31 March 2021

Employer size	Employments on furlough	Eligible employmentsǂ	Take-up rateǂ
1	182,700	725,700	25%
2 to 4	589,800	1,745,600	34%
5 to 9	502,200	1,585,500	32%
10 to 19	475,800	1,773,000	27%
20 to 49	572,200	2,530,500	23%
50 to 99	280,300	1,855,700	15%
100 to 249	307,800	2,444,300	13%
250+	1,400,200	16,607,600	8%
Unknown	8,000	-	-
Total	4,319,100	29,268,000	15%

Table 2d: Employments on furlough by employer size as at 30 April 2021 (provisional)

Employer size	Employments on furlough	Eligible employmentsǂ	Take-up rateǂ
1	160,200	725,700	22%
2 to 4	510,400	1,745,600	29%
5 to 9	428,800	1,585,500	27%
10 to 19	403,000	1,773,000	23%
20 to 49	474,300	2,530,500	19%
50 to 99	227,600	1,855,700	12%
100 to 249	239,700	2,444,300	10%
250+	985,400	16,607,600	6%
Unknown	6,000	-	-
Total	3,435,400	29,268,000	12%

ǂ The take-up rates are based on employments eligible for the CJRS extension.

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Note: the number of employments on furlough in the unknown size category is not directly comparable with the number of employers in the equivalent category in tables 2a and 2c.

Sector at 30 April 2021

This section presents analysis of CJRS claims according to the primary economic sector of employers’ activity. The take-up rate is also reported in this table for both employments and employers. This is presented in tables 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d, below.

Key points from tables 3a and 3b are:

• the accommodation and food services sector had the highest take-up rate at 31 March 2021 at 67% of eligible employers putting staff on furlough. Provisional estimates show this decreased to 64% of employers at 30 April 2021
• the other service activities sectors had the second highest take-up rates at 63% at 31 March 2021. This decreased to 47% at 30 April 2021. The arts, entertainment and recreation sector had the second highest take-up rate at 55% of eligible employers with staff on furlough on 30 April 2021
• at 125,800 the wholesale and retail sector had the largest number of employers putting staff on furlough staff at 31 March 2021. Provisional figures for April 2021 show that this continued to be true with 109,600 employers placing staff on furlough in this sector at 30 April 2021
• at 30 April 2021, the accommodation and food service sector had the highest value of claims at £5.1 billion

Table 3a: CJRS claims by sector as at 31 March 2021

Sector	Employers furloughing staff	Take-up rateǂ	Value of claims made for periods from 1 November to 31 March (£ million)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	5,200	15%	68
Mining and quarrying	300	29%	10
Manufacturing	47,300	47%	1,218
Energy production and supply	400	31%	17
Water supply, sewerage and waste	2,400	42%	62
Construction	83,600	35%	1,025
Wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles	125,800	51%	3,339
Transportation and storage	29,700	39%	937
Accommodation and food services	88,500	67%	4,374
Information and communication	36,900	25%	490
Finance and insurance	8,800	26%	132
Real estate	19,400	40%	265
Professional, scientific and technical	97,100	32%	1,116
Administrative and support services	68,100	42%	1,491
Public administration and defence; social security	300	4%	24
Education	17,900	45%	456
Health and social work	33,000	33%	524
Arts, entertainment and recreation	25,500	62%	1,152
Other service activities	58,800	63%	805
Households	2,000	3%	12
Unknown and other	13,900	-	216
Total	764,900	39%	17,733

Table 3b: CJRS claims by sector as at 30 April 2021 (provisional)

Sector	Employers furloughing staff	Take-up rateǂ	Value of claims made for periods from 1 November 2020 to 30 April 2021 (£ million)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	4,200	13%	77
Mining and quarrying	300	25%	12
Manufacturing	41,600	41%	1,414
Energy production and supply	400	28%	18
Water supply, sewerage and waste	2,200	38%	70
Construction	72,800	30%	1,182
Wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles	109,600	44%	3,733
Transportation and storage	28,500	37%	1,103
Accommodation and food services	84,100	64%	5,058
Information and communication	34,000	23%	573
Finance and insurance	7,900	23%	153
Real estate	17,200	36%	305
Professional, scientific and technical	88,100	29%	1,296
Administrative and support services	61,700	38%	1,725
Public administration and defence; social security	300	4%	29
Education	15,000	38%	516
Health and social work	27,300	27%	595
Arts, entertainment and recreation	22,500	55%	1,316
Other service activities	43,800	47%	912
Households	1,500	2%	14
Unknown and other	11,700	-	248
Total	674,700	35%	20,347

ǂ The take-up rates are based on employments eligible for the CJRS extension.

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data and Inter-Departmental Business Register

Key points from tables 3c and 3d are:

• at 31 March 2021, the sector with the highest proportion of its workforce eligible for furlough that were on furlough was the accommodation and food services sector at 58% followed by arts, entertainment and recreation at 54%
• take-up rates across all sectors decreased when comparing figures for 31 March with provisional estimates for 30 April 2021
• at 234,500, the wholesale and retail sector had the largest decrease in the number of employments on furlough from 31 March to 30 April 2021 (provisional)

Table 3c: Employments on furlough by sector as at 31 March 2021

Sector	Employments on furlough	Take-up rateǂ
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	17,200	9%
Mining and quarrying	1,600	3%
Manufacturing	276,800	12%
Energy production and supply	2,400	2%
Water supply, sewerage and waste	11,400	7%
Construction	198,300	16%
Wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles	837,300	19%
Transportation and storage	195,700	15%
Accommodation and food services	1,114,200	58%
Information and communication	101,500	8%
Finance and insurance	29,300	3%
Real estate	58,100	13%
Professional, scientific and technical	245,400	11%
Administrative and support services	342,000	14%
Public administration and defence; social security	8,600	1%
Education	148,300	5%
Health and social work	158,400	4%
Arts, entertainment and recreation	299,300	54%
Other service activities	213,400	40%
Households	2,700	2%
Unknown and other	57,400	-
Total	4,319,100	15%

Table 3d: Employments on furlough by sector as at 30 April 2021 (provisional)

Sector	Employments on furlough	Take-up rateǂ
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	13,200	7%
Mining and quarrying	1,300	3%
Manufacturing	246,300	11%
Energy production and supply	1,700	1%
Water supply, sewerage and waste	8,800	5%
Construction	166,600	13%
Wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles	602,800	14%
Transportation and storage	163,000	12%
Accommodation and food services	932,600	48%
Information and communication	90,400	7%
Finance and insurance	24,100	2%
Real estate	46,500	11%
Professional, scientific and technical	210,400	10%
Administrative and support services	280,900	11%
Public administration and defence; social security	6,700	0%
Education	91,800	3%
Health and social work	114,600	3%
Arts, entertainment and recreation	230,200	42%
Other service activities	157,500	29%
Households	2,100	2%
Unknown and other	43,900	-
Total	3,435,400	12%

ǂ The take-up rates are based on employments eligible for the CJRS extension.

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data and Inter-Departmental Business Register

Countries and Regions and gender at 30 April 2021

We also provide a geographic breakdown of CJRS claims based on the residential address information that HMRC holds for employees. This does not directly translate to the employee’s usual place of work, or employer’s centre of operations which may be in a different region. For example, an employee who lives in Wales and normally commutes daily to work in Bristol would be included within the count for Wales, rather than for South West England.

Figures 8a and 8b show the number of employments on furlough by each of the English regions, and the totals for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. For some employments it has not been possible to link the employment to the employees’ area of residence and these are included in the unknown category.

The key points from figures 8a and 8b are:

• London and the South East accounted for 1.25 million of the employments on furlough at 31 March 2021. Provisional estimates show this decreased in April when they accounted for 1.00 million of the employments on furlough at 30 April 2021
• the East Midlands and West Midlands had a total of 607,800 employments on furlough at 31 March 2021, decreasing in April with 485,800 at 30 April 2021
• at 31 March 2021, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland combined had 598,900 employments claimed for under CJRS. Provisional estimates for 30 April 2021 show a decrease of 107,300 to 491,600 employments on furlough

Figure 8a: Employments on furlough at 31 March 2021, by Country and Region and gender

Region	Female	Male	Total
London	328,800	341,900	670,700
South East	310,800	267,700	578,500
North West	226,100	214,900	440,900
East	206,400	175,000	381,400
West Midlands	175,200	159,100	334,300
South West	191,000	160,400	351,400
Yorkshire And The Humber	160,000	147,000	307,100
East Midlands	146,800	126,700	273,500
North East	74,800	67,000	141,800
Wales	85,300	78,100	163,400
Scotland	174,100	159,300	333,400
Northern Ireland	52,700	49,500	102,200

Figure 8b: Employments on furlough at 30 April 2021 (provisional), by Country and Region and gender

Region	Female	Male	Total
London	261,600	289,600	551,300
South East	235,500	216,000	451,500
North West	174,300	175,800	350,100
East	157,400	140,100	297,600
West Midlands	135,800	134,800	270,500
South West	144,200	126,800	271,000
Yorkshire And The Humber	123,000	119,200	242,300
East Midlands	112,700	102,600	215,200
North East	57,500	57,900	115,400
Wales	66,500	65,400	131,900
Scotland	139,500	130,300	269,800
Northern Ireland	45,600	44,400	90,000

Source: HMRC CJRS data and PAYE Real Time Information

Figures 9a and 9b show the take-up rates of employments on furlough within each country and region using CJRS with a gender breakdown.

The key points to note from figures 9a and 9b are:

• there was broad consistency in furlough rates across the nations and regions of the UK at the end of March 2021 with London having the highest take-up rate of 17% against the UK average of 15%. Provisional estimates show that this was also true at the end of April 2021 with London having the highest take-up rate at 14% against a UK average of 12%
• as shown in figures 9a and 9b, the take-up rate is similar for males and females within all regions and countries of the UK at 31 March and 30 April 2021

Figure 9a: Employment furlough take-up rate at 31 March 2021, by Country and Region and gender

Region	Female	Male
London	16%	17%
South East	15%	13%
North West	14%	14%
East	15%	13%
West Midlands	14%	13%
South West	16%	13%
Yorkshire And The Humber	14%	13%
East Midlands	14%	12%
North East	14%	13%
Wales	13%	13%
Scotland	14%	14%
Northern Ireland	13%	14%

Figure 9b: Employment furlough take-up rate at 30 April 2021 (provisional), by Country and Region and gender

Region	Female	Male
London	13%	15%
South East	12%	11%
North West	11%	11%
East	11%	10%
West Midlands	11%	11%
South West	12%	11%
Yorkshire And The Humber	11%	10%
East Midlands	11%	10%
North East	11%	11%
Wales	10%	11%
Scotland	12%	11%
Northern Ireland	12%	12%

ǂ The take-up rates are based on employments eligible for the CJRS extension.

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

The data for figures 8a, 8b, 9a and 9b can be accessed from the accompanying spreadsheet.

Local authority and Parliamentary constituency and gender at 30 April 2021

Accompanying this release is a spreadsheet providing counts of the number of employments on furlough by local authority and UK Parliamentary constituency based on each employee’s residential address.

Tables 12 and 13 in the accompanying spreadsheet additionally provide a gender breakdown that is not shown in the maps in this section.

In figures 10a and 10b we present maps representing the take-up rates for employments on furlough for local authorities at 31 March and 30 April 2021 (provisional figures). Darker shades indicate a higher take-up rate.

The key points to note for local authorities at 30 April 2021 (provisional figures) are:

• the ten local authorities with the highest take-up rates at 30 April are South Lakeland (19%) and Eden (16%) in Cumbria, Scarborough (16%), Crawley (16%) and the London authorities of Newham (18%), Brent (17%), Haringey (17%), Hounslow (17%), Barnet (16%), and Waltham Forest (16%)
• Boston, the Shetland Islands and Fenland had the lowest take-up rates at 7%
• at 52,800, Birmingham had the highest number of employments on furlough, a take-up rate of 12%
• in Scotland, Highland, South Ayrshire, and Perth and Kinross had the highest take-up rates at 14%
• for Northern Ireland, Causeway Coast and Glens, and Newry, Mourne and Down had the highest take-up rates at 14%
• in Wales, Conwy had the highest take-up rate at 15%

Figure 10a: Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 31 March 2021, by Local Authority

Figure 10b: Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 30 April 2021 (provisional), by Local Authority

ǂ These maps are based on the number of employments eligible for the CJRS extension. (See methodology section for more information.)

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

In figures 11a and 11b we present maps representing take-up rates for employments on furlough for UK Parliamentary constituencies at 31 March and 30 April 2021 (provisional figures). Darker shades indicate a higher take-up rate.

The key points to note here for UK Parliamentary constituencies at 30 April 2021 (provisional figures) are:

• Westmorland and Lonsdale had the highest take-up rate at 21%
• the take-up rate was lowest in Orkney and Shetland constituency at 7%
• West Ham constituency had the highest number of employments on furlough with 15,300
• in Northern Ireland, East Londonderry had the highest take-up rate of 14%
• in Scotland, the Ross, Skye and Lochaber, Edinburgh East, Glasgow Central and Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituencies had the highest take-up rate of 15%
• in Wales the Aberconwy constituency had the highest take-rate at 18%

Figure 11a: Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 31 March 2021, by Parliamentary constituency

Figure 11b: Employments on furlough as a proportion of eligible employments at 30 April 2021 (provisional), by Parliamentary constituency

ǂ These maps are based on the number of employments eligible for the CJRS extension. (See methodology section for more information.)

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Age and gender at 30 April 2021

This section of the release describes the number of employments on furlough at 31 March 2021 by employees’ age and gender and provisional estimates at 30 April 2021. This breakdown is based on the most up-to-date demographic information that HMRC holds on the individuals for whom claims have been made. The age of employees is calculated as at 1 November 2020.

The key points to note from figures 12a and 12b are:

• at 31 March 2021 the 18 to 24 age band had the highest number of claimants for both females and males, 381,100 and 303,600 respectively. Provisional estimates show that this was still true at 30 April 2021 with 279,700 females on furlough and 234,700 males

Figure 12a: Employments on furlough at 31 March 2021, by age and gender of employee

Age band	Female	Male
Under 18	65,800	39,700
18 to 24	381,100	303,600
25 to 29	240,200	235,300
30 to 34	236,700	231,300
35 to 39	223,900	215,200
40 to 44	203,200	196,500
45 to 49	202,300	186,900
50 to 54	213,100	188,100
55 to 59	189,300	171,000
60 to 64	132,600	129,000
65 and over	82,300	90,300

Figure 12b: Employments on furlough at 30 April 2021 (provisional), by age and gender of employee

Age band	Female	Male
Under 18	49,000	30,700
18 to 24	279,700	234,700
25 to 29	185,200	190,400
30 to 34	184,400	191,000
35 to 39	175,500	179,900
40 to 44	159,600	165,900
45 to 49	159,900	158,500
50 to 54	168,500	158,900
55 to 59	149,400	143,300
60 to 64	105,700	107,500
65 and over	67,900	76,100

Source: HMRC CJRS data and PAYE Real Time Information

The key points to note from figures 13a and 13b are:

• the under 18 age band had the highest take-up rate for both female and males at 31 March 2021, 39% and 28% respectively. Provisional estimates for 30 April 2021 show that the under 18 age band continued to have the highest take-up rates at 29% for females and 22% for males
• provisional estimates for 30 April 2021 show that take-up rates decreased across all age bands from 31 March

Figure 13a: Employment furlough take-up rate at 31 March 2021, by age and gender of the employee

Age band	Female	Male
Under 18	39%	28%
18 to 24	23%	19%
25 to 29	14%	14%
30 to 34	14%	13%
35 to 39	14%	13%
40 to 44	13%	12%
45 to 49	13%	12%
50 to 54	13%	12%
55 to 59	13%	12%
60 to 64	14%	14%
65 and over	17%	17%

Figure 13b: Employment furlough take-up rate at 30 April 2021 (provisional), by age and gender of the employee

Age band	Female	Male
Under 18	29%	22%
18 to 24	17%	15%
25 to 29	11%	11%
30 to 34	11%	11%
35 to 39	11%	11%
40 to 44	10%	11%
45 to 49	10%	10%
50 to 54	10%	10%
55 to 59	10%	10%
60 to 64	11%	12%
65 and over	14%	14%

ǂ The take-up rates are based on employments eligible for the CJRS extension.

Source: HMRC CJRS and PAYE Real Time Information data

Region and sector at 30 April 2021

Tables 17 and 18 in the accompanying spreadsheet show the number of employments on furlough by local authority and region by sector at 31 March and provisional estimates at 30 April 2021

The key points to note are:

• at 31 March 2021, across all countries and regions except for Northern Ireland, the accommodation and food services sector had the highest number of employments on furlough, followed by the wholesale and retail sector. In Northern Ireland the wholesale and retail sector had the highest number of employments on furlough 31 March, followed by accommodation and food services
• provisional estimates show that this remained true on 30 April 2021 except for Northern Ireland where the accommodation and food services sector now has the most employments on furlough
• in London, 26% of the employments on furlough were in the accommodation and food services sector on 31 March 2021. Provisional estimates show this was similar in April at 27% at 30 April 2021
• Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland combined had 155,290 employments on furlough in the accommodation and food services sector at 31 March 2021. Provisional estimates show this decreased to 138,490 at 30 April 2021

Background

The government announced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) on 20 March 2020. It was introduced to support employers through the COVID-19 period, this has commonly been referred to as the furlough scheme. It works by providing grants to employers of up to a maximum 80% of salary to a maximum value of £2,500 per employee (until the end of August).

Up to the end of July, the scheme also met some of the cost of employer pension contributions and employer National Insurance Contributions.

The scheme is based around HMRC’s Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system. For an employer to qualify for the scheme they need to have created a PAYE scheme by 19 March 2020. In these statistics, an employer is defined as a PAYE scheme.

The rules for an employment to qualify to be covered by the scheme are set out in guidance, and two of the key rules are that the employee must have been employed on 19 March 2020 and the employer must have submitted a Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC for the employee by this date.

Up to date information about the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme can be found online. The pages on applying for support, for example, include further details of the eligibility criteria. Older versions of the guidance can be found in the National Archive by following the links from the guidance pages.

Changes to the scheme from 1 July 2020

The scheme closed to new entrants from 30 June 2020. After this date, employers have only been able to furlough employees that were on furlough for a full three-week period prior to 30 June 2020.

As a consequence of the closure of the scheme to additional employees and the minimum three-week furlough period that applied until the end of June, the final date that an employer could have put an employee on furlough for the first time was 10 June 2020.

Employers had until 31 July 2020 to make any claims in respect of the period to 30 June 2020. A small number of claims have been made since this date. These claims relate to exceptions as set out in the CJRS guidance (for example, for employees being put on furlough who have been absent from work and who had been paid Statutory Maternity Pay).

From 1 July 2020, employers have had the flexibility to bring employees who are on furlough back to work part time. Additionally, employers have the flexibility to decide the hours and shift patterns of their employees – with the government continuing to pay 80% of salaries for the hours they do not work.

From 1 September 2020, the scheme supported 70% of salaries for hours not worked, reducing to 60% from 1 October 2020.

When claiming the CJRS grant for hours where the employee is on furlough, employers need to report and claim for a minimum period of a week. Employers had until 30 November 2020 to submit claims for support from the CJRS.

Changes to the scheme from 1 November 2020

The CJRS scheme was extended from 1 November 2020. The rules for an employment to qualify to be covered by the extended scheme are set out in guidance.

The two key rules are that the employee must have been employed on 30 October 2020, and the employer must have submitted a Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC for the employee between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee. This may differ where they have made employees redundant, or they stopped working for the employer on or after 23 September 2020 and have subsequently been re-employed.

For claim periods from 1 November to 30 April 2021, employers with a PAYE scheme can claim 80% of an employee’s usual hours worked, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month. The £2,500 cap is proportional to the hours not worked.

Changes to the scheme from 1 May 2021

It was announced on 3 March 2021 that the CJRS would be extended further, beyond 30 April 2021 to 30 September 2021. To be eligible for furlough from the 1 May 2021 onwards, the employee must have been employed on 2 March 2021 and the employer must have submitted a Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC for the employer between 20 March 2020 and 2 March 2021, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee.

For claim periods from 1 May to 30 June 2021, employers with a PAYE scheme will be able to claim 80% of an employee’s usual hours worked, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month. The £2,500 cap is proportional to the hours not worked.

From 1 July 2021, the scheme supports 70% of salaries for hours not worked, reducing to 60% from 1 August 2021.

Further information about the job retention scheme can be found on the Internet here:.

Glossary

An employer is defined within this release as a Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Scheme. In some circumstances this does not map directly to what is commonly understood to be an employer. For example, some organisations operate multiple payrolls, and in other situations, a group of companies may pool their payrolls together under one PAYE scheme. However, in our view PAYE schemes provides a reasonable proxy for employers for the purposes of this release.

An employment is defined within this release as anyone who meets the scheme criteria set out within the published guidance. We have applied this definition in order to keep the presentation simple and the difficulty in separating out Office Holders (such as directors) from what are generally considered employees. Further information on the eligibility criteria is set out in the background section section above.

Measuring the data

Data source and collection

The data for this release comes from HM Revenue and Customs’ CJRS claims. It covers the whole population rather than a sample of people or companies, and it will allow for more detailed estimates of the population.

These statistics are classed as Experimental Statistics as they are still in development.

Additional data from HMRC’s Real Time Information system has been matched with CJRS data in order to produce the statistics released here.

Coverage

This publication covers all CJRS claims made by employers from the start of the scheme up to 14 May 2021 for support for the wages of staff on furlough up to 30 April 2021. The data for April 2021 is incomplete as claims relating to April 2021 may still be filed and amended; thus, the figures for April 2021 should therefore be considered provisional results and will be revised in future releases.

Methodology (except table 1)

This section provides notes on the methodology and implications for interpreting the figures.

The statistics in this release count employments. Therefore (for example), an employee with jobs at two employers will be counted twice if both jobs are put on furlough.

The criteria for eligibility for the CJRS were amended for the CJRS extension.

For furlough from November 2020 onwards, the numbers of jobs presented as ‘eligible employments’ and used to calculate take-up figures reflect the criteria for eligibility for the extension to the CJRS scheme. They are based on a list of employees employed on 30 October 2020 and included in PAYE Real Time Information submissions for 20 March 2020 to 30 October 2020. Only employments in RTI submissions received by HMRC by 30 October are counted.

Following the criteria for qualifying for the scheme, this is supplemented by a list of people who were employed on 23 September 2020 but who left their job before 30 October and who were later re-employed by the same employer.

In this release employers are described as eligible to claim the CJRS if they employed staff for which the criteria to be eligible for furlough were met. Employers are grouped into size bands in some tables according to the number of employees they had who were eligible to be put on furlough under the extension to CJRS.

In some circumstances HMRC holds incomplete information about employments, for example where a leaving date had not been submitted by employer. In this situation, an estimate of the probability that an individual was employed on the qualifying dates has been used.

The statistic published on 6 May 2021 contained a downward revision to the number of employments eligible for CJRS extension. This is due to a refinement in the methodology and results in a small increase in our estimates of the employer and employment take-up rates.

In the next CJRS statistics release, which will cover claims received by 14 June, we will publish final figures for the number of people on furlough each month of CJRS extension (to end-April). This will include take-up rates using the refined methodology for the eligible population. We will also publish revised figures for the eligible population for the original scheme with a future release of these statistics.

The assessment of whether a person was employed on the qualifying dates is based on the methodology used for the joint HMRC/ONS statistics release, Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information.

Employers making claims for 100 or more employees at a time are required to submit the details of the employees on furlough in a spreadsheet-type file. While these claims have been processed from a customer service perspective, the processing of this information for these statistics has been complex and the processing of data on some employments has not been completed. This is a factor behind the unknown category in the tables.

The completeness of this data has gradually improved since the first release, and we expect some further (smaller) improvements.

The geographic and flexible furlough breakdowns of employments include all employees that employers have put on furlough where it has been possible to link claim data on employments on furlough to classifying information (such as the employee’s gender and address). The linking has been performed using employees’ National Insurance numbers to data held within HMRC’s Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) system. When the employer-submitted National Insurance numbers are not of sufficient quality to be matched with other HMRC data, the employments have been categorised as ‘unknown’.

The geographic breakdowns in the tables and maps use a postcode lookup file from Office for National Statistics (ONS) data to link UK postcodes to geographic areas.

Industrial sector information is based on the Interdepartmental Business Register (IDBR) produced by the ONS. Where PAYE schemes are absent from the IDBR, we have used sector information from Companies House, linking on employer name where possible. This provides Standard Industrial Classification codes (UK SIC 2007) for employers that have made a claim. Where we have been unable to determine SIC codes, we have reported the sector as ‘unknown’.

The time series in this bulletin show figures for the number of employments on furlough each day, using all claims submitted to HMRC by 14 May 2021.

In producing the time series statistics some challenges had to be tackled. These included dealing with data on amendments to claims and claims for overlapping periods. In addition, claims where 100 or more staff are being put on furlough may include staff on furlough for varying periods. These factors combined with some incomplete data (as mentioned above) make counting the number of employees on furlough over time complex.

The method employed is designed to generally prevent overcounting employments and may in certain circumstances very slightly undercount. Consequently, for the period to the end of June, the time series presented in this bulletin may typically slightly undercount the number of employments on furlough.

Where an employer makes a claim for up to 99 jobs, HMRC collects the start and end date of the claim but does not collect specific separate furlough start and end dates for each job covered by the claim. For these jobs, we use the claim period to estimate when the jobs were on furlough. This works well for jobs on furlough for the whole period of affected claims. However, if a job was on furlough for 1 April to 11 April only, for example, due to this data limitation, it would appear to be on furlough for the full month in these statistics. During periods when the number of jobs on furlough is decreasing over time, this will lead to the number of jobs on furlough at the end of the month being somewhat overstated.

The figures for the number and value of claims do not take account of voluntary repayments nor remove claims not paid for compliance reasons. Claims cancelled by employers within 72 hours of making the claim are excluded.

Methodology (cumulative figures - table 1)

The methodology used for the figure for the cumulative number of jobs ever on furlough since the start of the scheme (table 1 above and tables 1, 1a, 1b in the spreadsheet accompanying this release) has been improved. For figures up to 13 December 2020, the method used was based on the figures for the total number of jobs on furlough on each claim. This choice had to be made because at the time the job-level information available for statistical purposes was incomplete for larger claims.

Over time – and particularly with the introduction of the CJRS extension – the previous method had started to undercount the total number of jobs put on furlough.

The original method took the total number of jobs on furlough from all the claims made by each PAYE scheme. It then found the maximum number of jobs put on furlough for each employer across all their claims. Finally, it summed these values for all PAYE schemes to arrive at a total number of employees ever on furlough.

The new approach uses job-level data. For this, we calculate the number of unique National Insurance numbers in the claims made by each employer, and then sum these. This information is supplemented by the employee’s name and payroll number in a small number of cases.

The cumulative number of employers making CJRS claims is calculated as the number of distinct PAYE schemes that have submitted a claim since the start of the scheme. The cumulative value of claims made is calculated as the sum of the amount claimed for each submitted claim.

Since the introduction of flexible furlough employers have been able to cancel claims made on the CJRS claims portal within 72 hours of making a claim. From the figures dated 15 February 2021 onwards, claims cancelled in this way have been excluded.

The figures for the number and value of claims do not take account of voluntary repayments nor remove claims not paid for compliance reasons. Claims cancelled by employers within 72 hours of making the claim are excluded.

HMRC separately publishes figures for the value of claims paid to employers, in its monthly publication on tax receipts. Those figures are on a cash basis and reflect the time that the payments were made rather than the date that claims were received, so are slightly different to the figures included in this release.

Rounding of figures in the tables accompanying this release

Rounding has been applied to the figures in the tables accompanying this release, with counts rounded to the nearest 10 for Tables 17 and 18 Local Authority by sector, and to the nearest 100 for all other tables, amounts are rounded to the nearest million.

User questions and feedback

We welcome questions and feedback. Our email address is: cjrs.statistics.enquiries@hmrc.gov.uk

Strengths and limitations

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) grants pre-release access to Official Statistics publications, and in accordance with the HMRC policy, pre-release access has been granted to a number of people to enable the preparation of a ministerial briefing. Further details, including a list of those granted access, can be found on HMRC’s website.

Experimental Statistics status

The release is classed as Experimental Statistics as the methodologies used to produce the statistics are still in their development phase. This does not mean that the statistics are of low quality, but it does signify that the statistics are new and still being developed. As the methodologies are refined and improved, there may be revisions to these statistics.

Rather than waiting until the development work has been completed, the statistics are being published now to involve potential users in developing the statistics. We hope that this encourages users to provide us with their thoughts and suggestions of how useful the statistics are and what can be done to improve them. Comments can be sent by email to CJRS.Statistics.Enquiries@hmrc.gov.uk.

More information about what it means for Official Statistics to be classified as Experimental Statistics is available from the Office for Statistics Regulation.

Office for Statistics regulation review

These statistics have been produced quickly in response to developing world events. The Office for Statistics Regulation, on behalf of the UK Statistics Authority, has reviewed them against several key aspects of the Code of Practice for Statistics and regards them as consistent with the Code’s pillars of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value.

Strengths of the data

The data used in this release includes all claims made by employers up until 14 May 2021 for support for the wages of staff on furlough up to 30 April 2021, rather than a sample. We have linked CJRS data to Pay As You Earn Real Time Information data (PAYE RTI) to provide the additional information presented in this release.

Revisions

In future iterations of this statistics release there may be some further revisions reflecting improvements to the data processing and methodology.

The figures in this release incorporate data on claims received by HMRC up to 14 May 2021 and cover employments on furlough up to 30 April 2021. The data for April 2021 is incomplete as late claims for the CJRS extension may still be filed with reasonable excuse and HMRC agreement. Amendments to April 2021 claims may be made until 28 May 2021.

Based on figures for March it is expected that these factors will result in an increase in the level of jobs on furlough reported for April 2021 of about 3%. Thus, the figures for April 2021 should therefore be considered provisional results and are likely to be revised slightly upwards in a future release.

Related links

Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, UK: May 2021 - Employee and earnings statistics from PAYE Real Time Information.

Labour market in the regions of the UK: May 2021 - Regional breakdowns of changes in UK employment, unemployment and economic activity.

Employment in the UK: May 2021 - Estimates of employment, unemployment and economic inactivity for the UK.

Average weekly earnings in Great Britain: May 2021 - Estimates of growth in earnings for employees before tax and other deductions from pay.

HMRC coronavirus (COVID-19) statistics - Collection of HMRC data regarding COVID-19 response initiatives and policy.