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Original poster

Labour have ruined the job market

293 replies

Needajobforspouse · 14/02/2025 20:55

My spouse was made redundant in November, has done some bid work since then (e.g zero contract parcel delivery) but not enough to make up his old salary. He has job alerts and this week there was ZERO jobs advertised that meet his qualifications.

Nobody is hiring.

I work for an SME, and I am also at risk and in bad health. Not enough for PIP etc but enough to make me unreliable (recently diagnosed as immunocompromised).

Not even the local supermarket is hiring, and they won’t touch my DH anyway as he is massively over qualified (I know a supermarket manager and they don’t take on over qualified people as they are “hard to manage” and don’t stay long term.).

yesterday our car broke and we used the last of our savings for a new one, my roof is leaking. My bay window is leaking and I just feel like giving up.

just dreading this year of shitty government policies that pick on the middle income earners and penalise us, is this life? Because if so I hate it.

also where are all the jobs?! Literally zero here in northern England.

OP posts:
Lambington · 15/02/2025 01:58

Yabu. You can't. Blame the government for everything. Certain sectors will contract , others will expand. The economy is generally stable and areas which are needed will do well. Others won't. People make their choices and need to live with them.

Yalta · 15/02/2025 01:41

mindutopia · 14/02/2025 21:28

I don’t think this has anything to do with the Labour government. It has to do with the state of the world and the economy, which didn’t just appear on the scene a few months ago. I work in a very well paid and prestigious scientific field. Our work tends to be funded by research grants that take years to set up. In past years, I could search for jobs (very niche database) and find 20-30 in my field in a given region. Today, maybe 5, in some areas absolutely nothing. This didn’t happen because of Labour. It happened because there has been a long period of cutting funding by the government over years and also a redirection of university resources in such a way that makes these jobs hard to fund. None of it happened overnight. It’s all part of cost of living (employees cost money) and that didn’t start with Labour.

I work a zero hours contract and I have pretty much been told once I hit £5000 earnings with them from April they aren’t going to be able to offer me anything till next year because they can’t afford the extra 5% on my salary, or anyone else’s and as they have a lot of students as the university is near by coming in from October they will fill the work with them till next April or when the students have earned £5000

Speaking to someone who works at the benefits office even she said that there isn’t any work for them to offer people

Normally there are the basic jobs for shop work, hospitality, care homes and warehouse work but even they aren’t hiring and if anything they are getting rid of people as businesses to save the 5% NI and all the other taxes Labour has risen and is expecting them to pay they have to let people go to balance the books

What I don’t understand is how RR and Labour thought that costing a business more to employ someone was somehow going to grow the economy

Surely they must have realised that businesses weren’t going to hand over more money in taxes just to keep Janice from accounts or James from legal working for them. They would just get rid of all the Janices and James they could, divide up their work and carry on

So all the Janice’s and James’s end up claiming benefits costing the government £1500 per month instead of the extra £150 income they thought they would be getting

Utterly ridiculous

Franjipanl8r · 15/02/2025 01:38

ThatsNotMyTeen · 14/02/2025 21:05

Sorry you’re having such a shit time though. But if businesses can’t shoulder a relatively modest NI increase, they probably weren’t that viable anyway

My DH’s company needs to find an extra million pounds to cover their total NI increase. They’ve already started to cut jobs in preparation.

Adviceforfriendpl · 15/02/2025 01:21

HoskinsChoice · 14/02/2025 23:54

I'm astounded at how blinkered people are about politics. Recruitment has literally fallen off a cliff since Labour came to power. There are many, many international developments that impact our economy but this is not one of them. I say this as a Labour voter - the Recruitment market dropped off almost over night after the election. This is not '14 years of Torys' or global issues, this is absolutely on Labour and they need to sort it very, very quickly!

This - I don't think people understand enough how businesses work

AsLivingArrows · 15/02/2025 01:14

Labour inherited a shit hole

Treeinthesky · 15/02/2025 01:09

All these jobs in the north are agency and agency aren't reliable!

floppybit · 15/02/2025 00:46

@Lucyccfc68 brilliant, thanks!

Shakeoffyourchains · 15/02/2025 00:38

Needajobforspouse · 14/02/2025 21:21

Well he isn't a class Hgv driver he works in marketing mainly 😂 and to the pp who said well these businesses aren’t that profitable, that is true.

But I have different perception, I work for a scale up IT firm so still an SME. With out being able to employ local talent and pay them competitive rates, how do you expect these companies to grow and nurture that talent? Our company is having to stop the amount of (paid!) interns it gets and apprentices due to these changes in NI and other unexpected business costs.

And I am living in a damp leaky house and my partner can’t get a job as even a typist or a person who fills the shelves in aldi! Its so crazy that I spent most of my life fighting against the establishment (grew poor etc) and here I am living the worst I ever have.

Show quote history

Seems a bit petty to blame labour when you and your partner could've just worked harder when we were under the amazing and prosperous Tory government...

Crispynoodle · 15/02/2025 00:26

Upyerbum111 · 14/02/2025 21:07

There are jobs. Aldi mainly .

Both Aldi and Lidl are great employers plus he would get first dibs on the middle aisle! Has he a profile on LinkedIn? I get offered jobs constantly on there

IsEveryUserNameBloodyTaken · 15/02/2025 00:10

HoskinsChoice · 14/02/2025 23:54

I'm astounded at how blinkered people are about politics. Recruitment has literally fallen off a cliff since Labour came to power. There are many, many international developments that impact our economy but this is not one of them. I say this as a Labour voter - the Recruitment market dropped off almost over night after the election. This is not '14 years of Torys' or global issues, this is absolutely on Labour and they need to sort it very, very quickly!

I agree whilst it isn’t the only reason, on the slippery slope down this has accelerated things rather sharply.

Lucyccfc68 · 15/02/2025 00:06

floppybit · 14/02/2025 23:41

@Lucyccfc68 can I ask where you posted these please? Son would be interested, thanks

Of course.

https://careers.breedongroup.com/early-careers

There are 10 more roles going on the website on Wednesday. They are for plant/quarry operatives around England. If you have a look at Breedons FB page or Instagram, there’s videos of apprentices taking about the different jobs they do.

Hope it’s useful.

Careers at Breedon Group plc

Breedon is a leading vertically-integrated construction materials group in Great Britain and Ireland.

https://careers.breedongroup.com/early-careers

Jimmyneutronsforehead · 15/02/2025 00:03

Will he not consider a call centre job?

My ex-employer is always hiring on a WFH full time basis.

Call centre jobs are gruelling but they're in abundance and IME they will hire anybody (which has both good and bad points). I'm in NE England.

IsEveryUserNameBloodyTaken · 14/02/2025 23:58

surreywilds · 14/02/2025 22:31

Immigrant blaming Bingo !!

Show quote history

Ah I see you have only joined Mumsnet recently and like to claim anyone showing concern in such matters is a racist and bigot.
Love to know your agenda.

LadyQuackBeth · 14/02/2025 23:54

Marketing is going to be hit hard by AI, tbh, more than by slight changes to government policy. It will be a fairly permanent change as well - he should look at marketing for places like universities or Historic England, as they'll move him sideways rather than out if marketing shrinks to just one intern saying "Gemini... Make me a slogan..."

HoskinsChoice · 14/02/2025 23:54

I'm astounded at how blinkered people are about politics. Recruitment has literally fallen off a cliff since Labour came to power. There are many, many international developments that impact our economy but this is not one of them. I say this as a Labour voter - the Recruitment market dropped off almost over night after the election. This is not '14 years of Torys' or global issues, this is absolutely on Labour and they need to sort it very, very quickly!

vandertable · 14/02/2025 23:51

No - the only trend in vacancies is a longer term one. So not due to Labour. https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/jobsandvacanciesintheuk/january2025/3d6feced

scorpiogirly · 14/02/2025 23:50

They've pretty much wrecked everything.

0ohLarLar · 14/02/2025 23:48

Labour have certainly killed the market for many entry level roles as the increases in minimum wage/NI mean that someone like an apprentice / entry level will cost a business the same as someone with 5 years’ experience. So of course they will choose the person with 5 years’ experience.

Well no because apprentice levy. Minimum wage is also still much lower for under 21s.

AlleyRose · 14/02/2025 23:46

@bodychanges

They're not going to 'accept less profit'!!! They're a business. That's not how businesses work.

0ohLarLar · 14/02/2025 23:45

Ive got 3 job openings right now
London
Highly skilled
In the finance/accountancy space

The two less experienced roles we're struggling to fill!

Echobelly · 14/02/2025 23:44

I don't think it's Labour, or just Labour. It's not like the Tories were doing much for the economy either... dh started looking for a job early last year and it was dreadful then to, not a single interview even for 8 months when he could normally land work in a few weeks. If anything it picked up a bit towards the end of last year and something turned up fairly suddenly out of the blue.

Wishing your DH luck @Needajobforspouse

Ringpeace · 14/02/2025 23:44

Well, what do you expect after 14 years of Labour government?

Oh. Hang on.

JustSawJohnny · 14/02/2025 23:43

And yet we all had cash coming out of our ears and could get a job at the click of a finger under the Tories, yeah?

🙄

floppybit · 14/02/2025 23:41

@Lucyccfc68 can I ask where you posted these please? Son would be interested, thanks

LoztWorld · 14/02/2025 23:40

Sorry you’re in such a difficult situation. Hope your husband finds work soon.

On the causes though - I personally consider this Labour government hopeless. But there are so many more significant factors at play here than their (very mild) NI/NMW policies.

Business will ALWAYS moan about increases in NMW. If we had listened to business owners back in the day, there would never have been a minimum wage in the first place! Most reasonable people now agree that in a humane society a minimum wage is essential.

Globally there’s a huge economic shift happening. And locally we’re experiencing the outcome of decades of low investment and terrible decision-making. The idea that the current shitshow is all down to eight months of bad government is just nonsense.

I wish it were true though - because that would be much easier to solve!