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Chancellor Rishi Sunak today has issued an update on the Government's ambitious Plan for Jobs.

The pandemic has hit hard, causing the biggest fall in annual output in the UK for 300 years; in the face of this crisis, the government provided an unprecedented package of support to shield businesses and jobs.


  • Over £350 billion of support has been provided by the government to
    protect jobs and businesses through cash grants, loans, tax deferrals and tax cuts.
  • This includes £68.5 billion on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) alone that has protected 11.6 million jobs since its inception, equivalent to over a third of the entire workforce. Over £27 billion has been spent on the self-employed through five Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grants, supporting nearly three million selfemployed individuals throughout the pandemic.


In July 2020, the government launched the Plan for Jobs – a comprehensive and ambitious plan to help people back into work and develop the skills they need to thrive as the UK emerges from the pandemic.

The government is making a deliberate choice to invest significant funds in our Plan for Jobs – work is the best route out of poverty, it gives families financial security, and it provides opportunity to grow and develop.


  • Kickstart will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for young people at risk of long-term unemployment – so far over 63,000 young people have started a Kickstart job.
  • In just eight months, the number of work coaches has doubled to 27,000.
  • More than 85,000 apprentices have been newly hired under our new incentive payments, of which 75 per cent were under 25-years-old.


Our plan is working. Unemployment has fallen for six consecutive months, with the peak now forecast to be two million less than previously feared.

The unemployment rate is lower than the US, Canada, France, Italy, Spain and Australia. GDP is also recovering and the IMF forecasts the UK to have the highest growth rate among the G7 economies this year.

Thanks to the success of the vaccine rollout, the economy has been safely re-opening and people have been rapidly coming off furlough; from a peak of almost 9 million last year, to 1.6 million at the end of July. Similarly, in recent months the number of people claiming SEISS grants has dramatically fallen.

And the government is not stopping there as the UK builds back better from the pandemic. By supporting businesses to thrive and grow, and by delivering the skills that business and the economy needs, this government will create better, more productive jobs across the UK.

Further reading of today's press release from gov.uk HERE

PM Boris Johnson tweeted:

Our #PlanForJobs is working. Unemployment is falling. The economy is recovering.

We will continue to support people into work, ensure they get the skills they need to get good jobs and help businesses fill their vacancies.