The Covid-19 downturn in the UK economy has caused the loss of over 600,000 jobs — but commentators warned it would have been much worse without the government’s furlough scheme, and are concerned at what may happen when it ends.

The monthly labour market release from the Office for National Statistics showed that “early indicators for May 2020 suggest that the number of employees in the UK on payrolls is down over 600,000 compared with March 2020”, the agency said on 16 June.