Labour have ruined the job market

Are you joking @BoredZelda? The jobs market is contracting at the fastest rate I have seen in the last 20 years. Redundancies, closures and employment freezes as far as the eye can see. I don’t think we are living in the same UK.

Both parties have made mincemeat of the economy. But more than anything else I believe it's a reflection of broader international instability.

but her budget was catastrophic for the jobs market and she was warned.

And yet, as a nation we are still at what would be considered full employment.

That’s been the case for years. Also - agency work is better than nothing as a stopgap.

but at the same time it shows we need a new business model, if businesses are running that close to profit or no profit etc, which seems on of the flaws of capitalism, cheap labour to even stand a chance at making profits

Yeah, you’re just making that up @BoredZelda.

Making what up? The figures I posted come from the Retailers own reporting.

The situation at my company is as described. We will face an additional £36k wage bill. We have no plans to cut staff, we are actually actively recruiting as our workload is crazy. We are currently reviewing annual pay rises and the directors have no intention of giving less than last year.

Please enlighten us on your unique insight that tells you global forms were already planning recruitment freezes, rather than it being a clear consequence of Reeves loading an additional 10% cost per employee. I work for a global firm. We were planning headcount increases until they were frozen following Reeves’ budget.

Call it being over 50 and having seen this stuff both from the inside and the outside whenever this kind of thing happens. In media they call it "a good day to bury bad news" Using a controversial policy or economic blip to do some cost cutting is business sleight of hand 101.

No organisation who is making billions in profit is freezing staff recruitment because they are afraid their business is in trouble. If businesses are cutting costs here, it is because they are protecting shareholders. Let's put the blame where it actually belongs.

We are not talking about a 1% increase here @Cupcakes2035. No businesses would have planned for an unexpected 10% cost increase per employee in one fell swoop. Of course they didn’t. No business ever would. It’s ridiculous, of
course the job market is impacted.

I do not agree with all this Rachel from accounts misogynistic bullshit, but her budget was catastrophic for the jobs market and she was warned. This is down to her.

@Needajobforspouse here you go marketing jobs, just filter for location:

https://www.charityjob.co.uk/jobs?keywords=Marketing+jobs&UserHasGrantedBrowserGeoLocationPermission=No

Same in the East Midlands. Nothing! After Covid there were loads. Now, absolutely nothing. No McDonald’s, restaurants, bars, supermarkets, clothes shops, coffee shops. None!

true but then it shows that the business itself is not viable just because a tax rise suddenly puts it into negative profits

No but we will all suffer when they shit up shop because they cannot make a profit.

They are not Increasing wages that employees receive, they are hiking the tax that employers pay per employee. There is no benefit to the employee here. The opposite - there is a detriment on Joe Public because the employers have to sack/freeze employees in order
to afford the tax. Economic Armageddon.

Yeah, you’re just making that up @BoredZelda.

Please enlighten us on your unique insight that tells you global forms were already planning recruitment freezes, rather than it being a clear consequence of Reeves loading an additional 10% cost per employee. I work for a global firm. We were planning headcount increases until they were frozen following Reeves’ budget.

covid proved society only needs the esential companies to keep society operating the rest of the businesses are un necessary, lets be honest manufacturing with 10 different brands of kettles, 100's of different car types etc, no wonder society is wasting resources

Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Next

Tesco = projected £2.9b in profit. Their projected dividend payout is up 10% from last year.

Sainsbury's = projected £1.06b in profit. (3 times that when you take their fuel business in to account)

Next = projected £1.05b in profit.

None of these companies will suffer because of the NI increase.

but at the same time it proves then that these businesses are not viable when they have to pay a proper wage, why should any business be able to make profits by paying cheap wages etc,

but if business are that squeezed for profits, then the concept of modern business is not possible when they have to pay proper wages vs relying on cheap labour to run a business ?

*employers cannot afford the 10% increase.

Of course they can’t FFS.

I work for a huge global firm of insurance brokers.

We've made 10% of our office redundant and been told pay rises are stuck at 1% this year because of the rise in NI contributions.

Your huge global firm are doing what many other huge global forms are, using the NI increase to hide behind whilst they make cuts they have wanted to for years. The additional wage bill will be a drop in the bucket compared to what they pay shareholders.

The tiny firm I work for are going to have quite a considerable increase. There is no suggestion we will cut staff or pay. We will still be profitable, just less so than we were. The directors are the only shareholders, it will be their dividends that are affected. They will still get their full "salary".

I'm struggling to reconcile everyone's experiences with the data.

Unemployment is 4.3% forecast to tick up to 4.7% by the end of the year.

This is a historically low rate (10 years ago it was 6.5%, 2011 it was 8%).

Available jobs are also higher than the 10 year average, about the same as they were before the pandemic and 40% higher than 10 years ago.

Are we just feeling a shift from the strong job seeker marker post pandemic, which was a historic blip? Or am I missing something in the data vs reality?

It’s basic cause and effect @FiveWhatByFiveWhat. If you add expenses of 10% per employee OF COURSE businesses will reconsider their hiring plans. It is ridiculous to blame this on the tories when all the employees are screeching that they cannot afford Reeves unexpected NI increase. It smacks
of desperation trying to defend her brain dead policy.

Yep, they've undone all the apparently marvelous work the Tories did in 14 years in 7 months.

I'm not saying Labour are amazing by the way. Definitely not. But I'm honestly baffled by people blaming a party who have been in for months for things that have been happening (or at least on the cards) for years due to the actions of the party who had control of the country for over a decade.

Exactly. This is what we are all experiencing. My firm has just cancelled 7 new headcount previously planned for 2025. Can’t afford
it any more.

You can really tell reading through this thread who actually works in the many impacted industries and who is just commentating from the sidelines. All those dealing in the jobs market know that Rachel R has trashed it and now we are all seeing hiring freezes and redundancies.

But for the labour diehards it is all lalala, nothing to see here, Brexit and 14 years of tories. Absolute bullshit. This can all be traced back to Reeves catastrophic employer NI policy. Everyone said it would happen but she knew best apparently

Rachel Reeves has capsized our bouyant job market. She should hang her head in shame, as should Starmer. They’ve only been in power for a few months FFS. This is appalling.

Economically illiterate. It is blindingly obvious. They are crashing the economy.