Midlands has highest rate of furloughed workers in country

The number of people claiming government support across the wider West Midlands including Shopshire rose to nearly half a million – the highest proportion in the UK.

Almost one third of all employees in our region were on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme at the end of June.

And three quarters of self-employed workers were paid through the Self Employment Income Support Scheme.

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Overall, the number across the region having their wages supported by the Government rose by 17 per cent over the month to 483,600 – the highest proportion in the UK at 32 per cent of employees.

Figures were today released for the West Midlands Combined Authority, including Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire.

In Shropshire 40,500 workers were on furlough while 14,000 received self-employed support. A total of 24,200 workers were furloughed in Telford & Wrekin, with 5,400 on the SEISS.

Dire warning

In Staffordshire, excluding Stoke, 168,300 workers received support up to the end of June, with 39,500 receiving self-employed support of £89.1m, and 128,800 on furlough.

Around three quarters of all self-employed workers have applied for support since the start of the scheme.

It came as business leaders gave a dire warning as a new report claimed one in three West Midland firms were likely to lay off staff.

The furlough scheme – which grants 80 per cent of employees’ pay up to a maximum of £2,500 per month – was initially supposed to last for three months.

But it was extended until October as it became clear that the lockdown was continuing to severely hamper the UK economy.

The support is now being scaled back, with the amount of furloughed wages paid by the Government reduced each month from August.

And Prime Minister Boris Johnson has now made it clear that he wants businesses to get back to work, encouraging firms to make arrangements for workers to get back to the workplace.

Nationally 9.4 million employments had been placed on furlough for the period to the end of June.

That is an increase of 678,000 compared with claims made until the end of May.