The Virus, The Business and Furlough

The COVID-19 pandemic has the world firmly in its grasp, with entire countries confined to their homes in a global effort to slow and prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

The full effects of COVID-19 have still not been felt as the pandemic rages on. According to a survey from Saker-Clark (2020), roughly 25 percent of UK businesses are closed or completely frozen because of government restrictions. This has seen businesses take huge hits to their earnings and employees seeing cuts in their wages. With over 140,000 UK companies having applied for the government furlough scheme (Osborne and Kollewe, 2020) seeing employees receive 80% of their usual salary and businesses covered for the bare minimum.

Because of this, many fear for what state the economy may be in after the pandemic settles and the world starts its recovery. With non-essential stores being forced to close alongside the lower income for the majority of the country, retail stores have seen their sales tank at a record pace in the last month (Romei, 2020). Clothing & footwear stores have been hit the hardest by COVID-19, whist not being able to operate on a physical level, their online stores have been their only outlet for making money, yet their sales online are tanking too, some up to 15% in comparison with pre-pandemic sales (Romei, 2020).

Instead of preparing for a summer of success, businesses have now been forced into isolation themselves and are trying to avoid sinking instead of swimming in the summer sea.

References:

Foreman-Peck, E., 2020. [image] Available at: <https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/04/11/the-changes-covid-19-is-forcing-on-to-business&gt; [Accessed 27 April 2020].

Osborne, H. and Kollewe, J., 2020. 140,000 UK Companies Apply For Coronavirus Job Furlough Scheme. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/apr/20/fears-of-flood-as-uks-covid-19-furlough-scheme-opens&gt; [Accessed 27 April 2020].

Romei, V., 2020. Data Reveals Damage Done To UK Economy By Covid-19. [online] Ft.com. Available at: <https://www.ft.com/content/1602e772-ea55-4c83-ad1a-ddba2ce38fc7&gt; [Accessed 27 April 2020].

Saker-Clark, H., 2020. Quarter Of UK Businesses Shut Down In Response To Coronavirus Pandemic. [online] The Independent. Available at: <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/coronavirus-businesses-close-doors-shut-ons-data-a9468211.html&gt; [Accessed 27 April 2020].