MORE than 21,000 people living in Colchester have been placed on furlough as part of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, new figures have revealed.

Across the borough, a total of 21,600 people have been registered on the scheme.

In Conservative MP Will Quince’s Colchester constituency, which is smaller and excludes areas like Stanway and Wivenhoe, the number is 13,900.

A total of 10,000 people are registered in Sir Bernard Jenkin’s Harwich and North Essex constituency, which covers Mersea and many rural parts of Colchester.

The amount is the second highest in Essex after Basildon, where 22,100 are signed up, although Colchester has the highest population in the county.

Across Essex a total of 174,000 have been registered including 14,900 in Tendring and 20,500 in Braintree.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme allows employers to apply for funding from the Government to pay 80 per cent of employees wages while staff are on furlough leave due to the coronavirus crisis.

Colchester Council’s business boss David King said it was too early to make any judgements on the state of the jobs market.

He said: “I accept it is still a significant number of people. It suggests a vulnerability but for many businesses the furlough scheme is a means to get through to reopening.

“The really important data will come in the next quarter when we start to see which companies make it through to better times.

“We can draw some encouragement from what we have seen in the town centre with retailers reopening on Monday.

“I think we will also see a strong start when hospitality businesses can reopen.”

Mr King said he believes Colchester is better placed to recover from the crisis than many other areas.

He said: “The number is a significant amount but our fundamentals in Colchester are still strong. The spread and range of employment in the town is good.”The council knows from our own analysis the great majority of companies are planning to come back.

“Some are inevitably worried and this is unsurprising, but it too early to tell the real effects.

“We are expecting an impact, it is obvious from national figures, on unemployment. But the town has shown before we can recovery more swiftly than some of our neighbours.”

He added: “I think it is too early to be pessimistic.”