Figures out this morning from the Office of National Statistics show the effects of the Coronavirus crisis on the UK’s businesses.
The survey covers the period 27 March to 6 April 2020 and of the 5,316 businesses responding ,25% reported they had temporarily closed or paused trading while 75% were continuing trading.
For responding businesses who were still trading, an average of 21% of the workforce had been furloughed under the terms of the UK government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
5% of the workforce were off sick or in self-isolation because of coronavirus.
41% said they were reducing staff levels in the short-term in the period 23 March to 5 April 2020,29% reported having to decrease working hours and 7% reported that they were recruiting staff in the short-term.
Nearly half of staff were working remotely but nearly four ten were still working at their normal place.
Online prices of items in the high-demand products (HDP) basket have increased by 1.8% over the period
