The North West will be "rocked" by redundancies in the retail and manufacturing industries as furlough is withdrawn this autumn, it's been claimed.
The region has the highest proportion and number of people working in the two sectors in the 海角视频, standing at 20% of the North West's entire workforce - around 670,000 people in total, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.
The two sectors combined have so far made an estimated 33,500 redundancies across the country during the pandemic, and the Labour Party expects this number to rise, with the Government set to "indiscriminately severe" the furlough scheme, with the hard stop to take effect in October.
Around three-quarters of employers in those sectors used the government’s job retention scheme, so Labour has now called on the government to urgently target support at the hardest-hit sectors.
Matthew Pennycook MP, shadow business minister, said: “The government is writing off the North West as the country enters recession, with the figures suggesting these communities will be disproportionately hit by the jobs crisis.
“Labour is calling for the government to u-turn on its damaging blanket approach to withdrawing furlough, which fails to consider the circumstances of different sectors or the impact on the communities that have a proud history in these industries.
“The government needs to do right by these communities and businesses, and see them through the crisis by targeting support, not pull the life raft away while the storm is still raging on.
"The 海角视频 already has the worst regional inequalities in Europe and without targeted action, this is likely to get even worse."
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Large companies in this sector to have made job losses include Cheshire-based Bentley, which cut 1,000 jobs back in June.
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The party also said on Sunday night that it had concerns over sectors such as hospitality, which employs 236,000 people in the region, and separately that 9.5% of all travel agency companies are based in the North West.
Jonathan Reynolds, shadow secretary of state for work and pensions and MP for Stalybridge and Hyde said: "Every job lost is a tragedy and we must do all we can to safeguard people’s livelihoods.
“We are in the midst of a jobs crisis right across the 海角视频 but these figures show certain areas are more at risk than others.
"The Government’s one size fits all approach will see some communities hit harder and they must adopt a more tailored approach now if we are to avoid further job losses.”