Burnham facing calls to cut employment red tape as job seekers grow for 41 months
The government is facing calls to strip red tape around employment after the pool of people looking for jobs in the UK grew for a 41st consecutive month.
The number of people on the hunt for work has now grown for nearly three and a half years while the number of available jobs has declined for 22 straight months, according to data collected by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).
Official data states the unemployment rate is 4.9 per cent, although economists have forecast a rise to around 5.3 per cent this year. Vacancies have mostly fallen over the last four years.
People out of work may be forced to take up short-term roles, with temporary placements rising for the fourth month in a row while permanent placements steadied, KPMG and REC found.
Maxine Bligh, REC’s chief membership and innovation officer, said the rise in vacancies for temporary jobs, the first in two years, showed that employers were set to “revive hiring plans”.
She called on the government to build “momentum in hiring” and prioritise the jobs market as miniters begin to layout policy in the coming months.
“If the government is serious about getting more young people their first vital opportunities of work they must think carefully about the balance of their ‘make work pay’ agenda by easing mounting costs and red tape around employment,” the industry chief said.
Burnham under pressure to boost jobs market
Industry figures have put pressure on Andy Burnham, John Healey and business secretary Jonathan Reynolds to deliver on a jobs boost later this year, having blamed Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves’ tax hikes for worsening the state of employment in the country.
Businesses have slowed their hiring plans after a dramatic increase in costs in recent years, brought on in part by Reeves’ decision to raise national insurance contributions for companies. Less than a quarter of firms are expecting to increase the size of their workforce over the coming months, according to the latest data from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).
Changes to employment law pushed through by Starmer’s government have also complicated the hiring landscape for firms.
Burnham has made boosting youth employment a key priority.
The KPMG report on jobs suggested that firms were raising pay packages for new hires as an increase in starting salaries was the quickest for six months.
The biggest rise in starting salaries came in London. New public procurement rules will also reward employers for raising pay beyond the national minimum wage.