“The extension of the furlough scheme may make political sense” says Professor Len Shackleton, Editorial and Research Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, but it may simply delay the inevitable for businesses and employeers.

Writing for the Telegraph, Len argues that we cannot “flick a switch and go back to the same level and pattern of employment as before. Many jobs which existed before lockdown will have gone for good: even in normal times over a million jobs are lost in each six-month period (though usually replaced by new ones elsewhere in the economy). The current furlough scheme is masking this, holding out the false hope that all the jobs which people had will be there when furlough ends.”

Read the full article here.