(Adds details, context)
LONDON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - British finance minister Rishi
Sunak announced a new jobs support scheme on Thursday that would
help firms employ people on shorter hours, but warned he could
not save every business or job.
"The government will directly support the wages of people in
work, giving businesses who face depressed demand the option of
keeping employees in a job on shorter hours, rather than making
them redundant," Sunak told parliament.
"It will support viable jobs to make sure that employees
must work at least a third of their normal hours and be paid for
that work as normal by their employer," he added.
"The government, together with employers, will then increase
those people's wages, covering two-thirds of the pay they have
lost by reducing their working hours."
Britain's existing furlough scheme, the Coronavirus Job
Retention Scheme, which supported around 9 million jobs at its
peak in May, is due to stop at the end of next month. It is
expected to cost around 50 billion pounds ($64 billion).
Around 5 million jobs were still supported by the programme
at the end of July, according to tax data, and earlier on
Thursday Britain's statistics agency estimated that one in eight
workers were being helped by the programme in early September.
The CJRS paid employers 80% of the salaries of furloughed
workers, up to 2,500 pounds a month.
(Reporting by David Milliken and Andy Bruce, writing by William
James, editing by Elizabeth Piper and Stephen Addison)