British finance minister Rishi Sunak announced a new jobs protection 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 the parliament.

Sunak said the scheme would run for six months, starting in November, and be open to all small and medium-sized enterprises. Larger firms would only be eligible if their turnover has fallen during the crisis.

"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 (CJRS), which supported around nine 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 U.S. dollars).

Around five million jobs were still supported by the program at the end of July, according to tax data. Britain's statistics agency estimated that one in eight workers were being helped by the program in early September.

Under the furlough program, the CJRS paid employers 80 percent of the salaries of furloughed workers, up to 2,500 pounds a month.

Despite the new support, analysts warn that Britain still faces the possibility of surging unemployment as many businesses simply cannot afford to keep staff, even on reduced hours.

"These measures should help ease the pressure currently being felt by businesses and workers up and down the country," said analyst Tom Selby from broker AJ Bell.

"However, whether it is enough to prevent a surge in unemployment as we head into winter remains to be seen."

Germany, France and other European economies have already introduced similar measures to the new wage subsidy scheme.

Sunak's update comes on the day Britons began facing new restrictive measures, including early closing times for pubs and restaurants.

UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week called on Britons to work from home as the country faces a spike in virus cases, hurting city-center services.

Johnson's call came as businesses were just starting to get back on their feet after a three-month nationwide lockdown earlier this year.

British gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by a fifth in the second quarter, more than any European neighbor, after the March 23 lockdown plunged the country into its deepest recession on record.

While retailers, hospitality sector and travel groups have been at the forefront of slashing tens of thousands of jobs during the pandemic and despite furlough support, supermarkets have created many new ones to meet a surge in online food demand.

Meanwhile, Britain on Wednesday recorded 6,178 new virus cases – the highest daily increase since May 1.

The government's top medical advisers had warned that the country could see up to 50,000 coronavirus cases a day by mid-October, and a month later exceed 200 deaths every day if nothing was done.

(With input from Reuters and AFP)