The Government’s furlough scheme will end on October 31.
The package wasinitially implemented to support livelihoods and protect jobs as thecoronavirus pandemic took hold.
In June 29.5% of the country’s workers werebenefiting from the scheme, and in may the number of jobs furloughed peaked at8.9 million.
Now, trade unions are warning of a devastating impact the endingof the furlough scheme will have, resulting in mass job losses, especially forthose on lower incomes and the self-employed.