AIBU to think redundancy crisis is not getting enough media coverage?

I’m at NHSE and we are losing 50% of our workforce following Wes Streetings announcement of the abolition of NHSE. We knew nothing beforehand, and had gone through a massive restructure 2 years ago. We’ve lost an incredible amount of good people, but with the redundancy package so attractive and our position so unstable (it’s still unclear whether we will become civil servants or not), I don’t blame them.

Im 41 in a Band 8C post and the NHS job market at the moment is nonexistent. I didn’t want to risk having to try find another job when the market is so fierce, so I hung on through the process and I’ve been slotted in - ironically in exactly the same job. The other ironic thing is many of these good people we’ve lost, will soon return to the nhs as consultants, earning huge amounts of money to top up their excellent redundancy packages.

I’m currently waiting for PR then citizenship (I’m not in the UK), but after that I want to become a nomad basing myself in low-cost countries where I can live for under $1000 a month until my savings run out. Perhaps supplementing my income with teaching English or yoga a few hours a week.

I don’t particularly want to hang around to watch Western economies implode.

Not trying to be argumentative but what jobs in shops? Supermarkets are getting rid of people because self service c/o, shops on the high street in towns are going, vape shops are suss as fck probably fronts .

@KoiTetra
Which sector of engineering please? For the benefit of any young people starting out.

The public sector is facing tens of thousands of redundancies, and it is a huge problem that barely anyone is talking about.

People cheered cuts to “NHS bureaucracy” without understanding that managers, admin staff and project teams are often the people keeping services running so clinical staff can focus on patients. Services were cut without any planning taking place as to who will manage services, and we will all suffer for this. Plus, the promised re-investment into hiring more nurses and midwives is not happening, as midwives are graduating university now with no jobs to go into.

Councils are now restructuring too, which means tens of thousands more job losses, with nowhere near enough suitable roles to absorb them.

And simply comparing unemployment figures with the number of vacancies is meaningless. Not every job is suitable, local or properly paid. There are actually very few like-for-like jobs available for these people to move into, meaning literally around 50,000 people looking for work in the next few years. Private sector are not hiring due to businesses taking tax hits, AI replacing jobs, so where are all these people going to find work?

Yup, DH. Although he’s in an industry that has the opposite problem and his company can’t hire people for shit (engineering). But he loves the idea of jacking it all in and moving to Asia too. So let’s see. At the moment we both have jobs and like our life here. But as PP hinted, the AI revolution has barely started.

What type of retail roles are people being recruited from overseas for?

Most of the NHS redundancies are non-clinical with NHSE in strategy and planning which is being duplicated by DHSC. The clinical people I know that have lost jobs at NHSE went there because their banding was so much higher than at the hospital - no weekends or out of hours and a better work life balance.

But the private sector did this in the 90s and 00s. I worked in insurance and between 1996 and 2009 we had at least 6 reviews where we had to reapply for our jobs.

Ai will impact some jobs incredibly, other areas will not be effected. There is some recruitment uncertainty because of trump's stupid behaviour and that, coupled with the huge increase in costs for employers means that things are stagnate at the moment.

The earlie 80s and early 90s were much much worse

Thank you 👏 people on here letting us know that there is no crisis 🤔 what do you mean? My particular specialised sector is struggling to find people 🫣 yes Chloe, but what does that have to do with 1000's of unqualified young and older people who have just lost their jobs in my town?

I don’t know anyone who’s being made redundant or that it was even a big thing. I do know people that have graduated and can’t find jobs, two of them being midwife’s which apparently our trust is short of so it doesn’t make sense.

https://www.fairplaytalks.com/2026/03/25/uk-redundancies-surge-as-early-2026-data-signals-another-record-year-for-job-losses/

Which parts of the civil service do you think should be slimmed down? Genuine question.

There is a huge crisis in the university sector with 1000s of jobs being lost. The hostile environment for international students is contributing a huge amount to this. It's hard to fathom how little is being done, particularly in communities where universities are really significant employers.

And yet the government keeps encouraging older people to carry on working!

They keep saying that there is going to be a shortage of labour, but I can't see that happening with AI.

I’d worry the unfair dismissal claim would impact his chance of landing another job. Not at all saying he’s wrong, I’m sure it’s very justified, but word gets around in most industries.

And we still keep getting told we need lots of immigration of people to bolster the workforce.

Well apparently engineers are needed after all.

You don't need to hear it - it's what employers do. The employee doesn't have to be "troublesome" as such - it can be as simple as face doesn't fit (anymore) or that they did something that the employer blames them for, even though it wasn't necessarily their fault. Employer waits for next redundancy round to get rid.

But if sectors such as engineering need people, it's about time they started training them. Who do they expect to do it for them?

In my experience (public sector) there's a restructure or redundancy and then the work just gets redistributed around the lucky souls who have managed to hang onto their jobs. Brief pause, then it starts again.

Edited to say I don't think it's not a new thing. I feel like it's being happening for the whole of my career.

One of my old employers needs to shed 500 employees, I have friends that still work there. A friend thinks she will also be made redundant in a year or two but she recently had to tell 60 people they were losing their jobs. DS GF graduate scheme was cancelled as this national company is now not taking on new graduates. Friends DD about to graduate as a nurse has no job.

DH has 5 friends who have accepted voluntary redundancy, all post 55 all well paid so they all took early retirement.

I'm definitely in a redundancy crisis, my very own personal disaster. Lost my job to redundancy last month, I have enough money till end of September. I'm 64. I can't find anything to apply for that would cover rent and bills. I'm not that fit, I am a carer and was previously entirely home based.

The "just take anything brigade" are very strong - I did hear of a job for 18 hours a week which wouldn't even cover my rent let alone anything else and required an additional unpaid 18 hours travel to undertake the work. Apparently I was mad not to apply ...

I agree op. Dh was made redundant before last Easter (software design). They got rid of the whole department. He’s spent the last 16 months applying for any job that could use his transferable skills and got nowhere. He said that most jobs on linked in don’t exist. It’s depressingly shit when you’re job hunting and the jobs aren’t there!

Then we need to recruit engineers or whatever and grant them visas, but we seem to be letting in any old bod. We don't need to bring in any more Turkish barbers or vape shop owners.