New initiatives needed to shore up UK jobs, business group says

Efforts by the United Kingdom to avoid massive pandemic-related job losses must be improved, stakeholders said on Wednesday after the release of a survey of more than 500 companies conducted by the British Chambers of Commerce, or BCC.

Only 43 percent of enterprises said they will participate in government initiatives unveiled last month by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak that include a 1,000-pound ($1,315) "bonus" for each furloughed worker brought back to the workplace, a subsidy toward the pay of young people, and grants for apprentices and trainees.

Instead, around one third of companies expect to lay off workers as the government's furlough program that the new initiatives replace winds down. The program had paid 9 million employees who could not attend their workplace because of the novel coronavirus lockdown and who could not work from home up to 2,500 pounds a month.