Number of furloughed jobs remains static

According to statistics from HM Treasury 3,100 people in Shetland have been in receipt of payments under the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS).

This was the same number found in statistics released by the government last month.

The figure accounts to 25 per cent of the workforce, which is the lowest percentage in all of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas, perhaps indicating that the economy is slightly more buoyant here than in the rest of the country.

The Scottish average is 32 per cent, almost a third of employed workers.

A further 600 local people have successfully applied for grants under the self-employment income support scheme (SEISS), which represents an uptake of 69 per cent, the second-lowest in Scotland.

The average payment made to people self-employed in Shetland was £3,500.

Both these figures are expected to drop significantly over coming months as more people return to work while many will be faced with the prospect of redundancy once the furlough scheme comes to an end later this autumn.

The figures also show that on 31 July 779,500 people in Scotland had received CJRS payments, an increase of 43,000 over the last month, while a further 157,000 had been in receipt of SEISS grants.