Labour have ruined the job market

[Needajobforspouse]

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.

But that's still a job? Or are we too good for that, hence the Tories started to recruit from abroad once all the Europeans left/stopped coming after Brexit?

Immigrant blaming Bingo !!

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.

My pay 'rise' won't even cover my council tax increase. I've been looking for another job too but it is tough out there.

But that’s down to greed, surely? They can afford to pay the Ni and bonuses but would have to accept less profit -

Marketing jobs get hit hard and fast when there is a downturn. It is very easy for companies to take marketing out of their budgets when they need a pocket of cash back. Generally it is a young persons industry as they are the most relevant, and there aren't that many in the top level roles. The top level roles are also well paid, so again very subject to cuts. I'd also guess that companies are going to try to turn to AI for some marketing work. I know its hard to look outside of your field, but hes going to have to come up with a plan B in case.

Sainsbury have closed their cafes to increase retail space. This is why staff have been made redundant. But it’s easier to blame the government. However this isn’t the reason.

It very much depends on the industry and your skills. I work in insurance. Five or six big companies are trying to recruit for the job I do at the moment. I had no plans to change jobs but was approached directly by one of the companies and indirectly (via recruitment consultants) about the others. I could have chosen any of them. They were all offering fully remote and a higher salary than I'm currently on.

Yes of course that why almost every single high street business, like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Next etc are cutting jobs. They’re unviable businesses 😂

Or maybe, just maybe, like most businesses which operate on fairly low net profit margins, they’re reacting to a relatively large increase (when you factor in the lower threshold plus higher rate its a 5% or so increase in tax on employment) in one of their biggest costs by cutting headcount and increasing automation. More automation, while bad for employment, will at least be good for UK productivity. Though, the biggest drag on that is the public sector, and the worst performing part of that is the NHS…

Naive

Business sentiment on hiring is sharply down across the board since Labour announced NI and NMW, though. Sainsbury’s is one big example that lots of people can relate to, but businesses small and large have indicated they will be shedding jobs and/or postponing hiring plans

DHL trained my DS for free hgv 2 course and test. He had to sign contract to say he'd work for them for 2 years but got paid at same rate as other hgv 2 drivers. Then after 2 years he went on to do hgv 1 driving course and test. There is a shortage of drivers and a lot of older ones are retiring.

Companies don’t “accept” less profit. They’re in business to make profit, that’s literally why they’re there.

Where in the north are you based?

That may be true in hairdressing, but in other sectors, apprentices are still being taken on and in large numbers.

I advertised 50 apprenticeship roles across the UK on Monday. All with starting salaries of £20,500 for 16-20 year olds. More for 21+

A mix of electrical, mechanical, quantity surveying, customer service, site supervision and plant operatives.

My sector has an ageing workforce, so our apprentices numbers will increase hugely over the next 5 years.

I'm a Labour voter and I have to agree that the employer NIC increases were a mistake. I listen to an economics podcast and they were saying the data is showing this policy is slowing growth. The government should have put the increases on income tax but they painted themselves into a corner during the election campaign.

That said, this policy only makes up a tiny part of the mess we're currently in. It's been decades of mismanagement that has got us here.

According to my husband who worked at Sainsbury's the cafés were always a loss maker.

There are less jobs at Tesco etc because automated checkouts mean less staff are needed. And less jobs in high street shops because people shop online.

Food service might be a stronger area and driving or trades as mentioned upthread.

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!

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

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?

🙄

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

Oh. Hang on.

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

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!

@bodychanges

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