More than 5,000 charity workers have lost their job amid the Covid-19 pandemic, research by New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) has revealed.

The think tank is collating information about redundancies in the sector, both those that have occurred and those under consideration.

Since May there have been 5,366 redundancies, the bulk of which came in July.

During May 749 charity sector workers were made redundant, this reduced to 588 in June but in July 3,841 staffers in the sector lost their job or were told their job was at risk.

So far in August 218 people have been made redundant.

NEW: We’re collating data on redundancies in the charity sector. Our interactive resource charts the overall numbers and when the redundancies were announced, so that philanthropists and policymakers can better understand where the sector is struggling: https://t.co/hkU9SyOICv pic.twitter.com/kt6UqzCPzd

— NPC (@NPCthinks) August 12, 2020

Arts and culture is the hardest hit sector. Charities working in this area have seen 2,956 lose their jobs.

The National Trust revealed last month that it is considering 1,200 redundancies due to the financial impact of the pandemic. Also last month the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust announced redundancy plans to take a £8.5m income loss.

Health has also been badly impacted, with 1,351 job losses.

The British Heart Foundation revealed in July that 300 jobs at risk due to the “devastating” fall in income due to Covid-19.

Meanwhile, youth charities have lost 50 roles, animal welfare 861 and development 148.

Girlguiding said this month that it is reluctantly looking to make “valued staff redundant” to “secure the long term sustainability” of the charity.

According to ACEVO and the Centre for Mental Health a third of charities are planning redundancies over the next 12 months.

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