Sunak, 40, is only seven months into the job and is taking over UK finances just weeks before the government closes much of the economy to halt the pandemic. First elected to Parliament five years ago, he was more popular than Mr Johnson all summer, and received public support from the vacation program and other business support measures. But now Mr. Sunak is starting to scale back some of those tax measures.
“I can’t save every business,” he said. “I can’t save every job.”
The challenge, of course, is to determine which jobs should be protected. Mr. Sunak said getting companies to pay for some of the reduced hours would be a signal of which jobs are profitable.
But this week new restrictions have been put in place to close bars, pubs and restaurants at 10 p.m., postponing plans to reopen events with large crowds and Encourage office workers to work from home This will affect more jobs and employers will be trying to decide whether they can afford to keep paying wages through six more months of restrictions.
Mr Emmerson said it was a smart concept to make employers pay for some of the lost hours, but many would not be willing to do so. “And therefore, unemployment may almost certainly rise quite sharply in November,” he said.
Almost 700,000 were already employed Jobs have been lost in Great Britain since March, also with the vacation schedule. Mr. Sunak said he hoped the job support program would encourage employers to cut working hours instead of laying off staff.
The Resolution Foundation, an economic think tank focused on living standards, warned that companies could have a “strong incentive” to cut working hours without officially adding them to this government program in order to avoid additional wage costs.
“With an estimated three million workers still on vacation, it is critical to find the right design to support workplaces,” said Torsten Bell, managing director of the organization.
