Teenagers are most likely to have had their jobs furloughed during the coronavirus outbreak, new figures show.

The highest rate is for jobs done by 17-year-old females, 61% of which have been furloughed.

Some 58% of jobs done by 17-year-old males have also been furloughed.

The proportion of employments that have been placed in the Government’s job retention scheme is lower among older age groups, falling to just 23% of jobs done by women aged between 41 and 58.

The lowest rate for men is 28%, for jobs done by males aged 41 to 49.

The figures, published by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), are for claims made under the furlough scheme up to the end of June.

They show that 9.4 million employments across the UK had been placed on furlough, at a cost to the Treasury of £26.5 billion.

Just over one million separate employers had made at least one claim under the scheme by the end of June.

More than half (57%) of jobs at employers with five to nine employees had been furloughed, compared with just under a fifth (19%) at employers with 250 or more employees.

The accommodation and food services sector has seen the highest proportion of employers furloughing at least some staff (87%), along with the highest proportion of total employments furloughed (73%).

For both males and females, the take-up rate of the furlough scheme drops away sharply between the ages of 20 to 30, falling from 47% to 27% for jobs done by females and from 46% to 32% for males.

It then climbs slightly to reach 30% and 35% of jobs done by women and men aged 69 respectively.

South Lakeland in Cumbria is the local authority area with the highest proportion of employments furloughed (40.5%), followed by another Cumbria authority, Eden (39.0%), and Crawley in West Sussex (37.5%).

The lowest was Boston in Lincolnshire (19.5%), followed by Copeland in Cumbria (22.2%) and the Western Isles (24.0%).

Gwynedd (34.0%), Highland (33.7%) and Mid Ulster (34.9%) were the highest rates in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Under the job retention scheme, which was launched in March, the Government pays up to 80% of employees’ wages, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month per employee.

The scheme will start to be scaled back in August, when firms are due to start making contributions to the costs, and will close in October.