More than a third of the UK workforce, thirty-six per cent, were working remotely in the two-week period from August 10, with eleven per cent remaining on furlough leave, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Forty-nine per cent were working at their normal place of work, and sixty-three per cent of furloughed employees were receiving top ups to their pay.
The data also revealed that the number of online job adverts in the UK fell slighty in the week to September 4, declining from fifty-five per cent to fifty per cent of the 2019 average following a period of sustained weekly increases. The ONS jobs figures use job adverts provided by online job search engine Adzuna and include experimental estimates.
For a third consecutive month, between June and July 2020, there were more firms that reported increasing turnover rather than decreasing turnover in the latest HMRC business turnover VAT returns.
And in the week commencing Saturday August 29, there was an average of 3,836 company incorporations per working day, an increase from the previous week’s average of 3,066. Over the same period, there were 1,071 voluntary dissolution applications per working day, taking this metric above the Q3 2019 average of 1,008.
The online price of food and drink items decreased by 0.1 per cent in the week to September 6, potentially signalling that the economy is edging yet closer to deflation. The Bank of England predicted that inflation may turn negative towards the end of 2020 earlier in the year, although the Bank said this would not represent “damaging deflation” of the sort that becomes entrenched and pushes down wage growth to very low levels.
These figures are taken from the ONS’ Coronavirus and the latest indicators for the UK economy and society report, published September 10.
The GDP monthly estimate for July will be published by the ONS tomorrow, Friday September 11.
10th September 2020.
