Unemployment rate jumps to highest level since late 2020 ahead of budget
https://news.sky.com/story/unemployment-rate-jumps-to-highest-level-since-late-2020-ahead-of-budget-13468366
Posted by StGuthlac2025
Unemployment rate jumps to highest level since late 2020 ahead of budget
https://news.sky.com/story/unemployment-rate-jumps-to-highest-level-since-late-2020-ahead-of-budget-13468366
Posted by StGuthlac2025
18 Comments
Its so hard right now. Especially for the young adults entering the workforce. The jobs are just increasingly not there and what is on offer isn’t going to pay enough to build any kind of life other than subsistence existence.
No sooner are you in a job, earning enough to have any kind of disposable income, you inevitably fall in to the rent trap for 20 years..
The whole PAYE job scene has become “end product candidates only” at every pay spine.
If I was a young man again, I’d be focusing on a trade and targeting self employment (and then, sadly, very likely emigration) ASAP.
The thing that economists warned would be the side effects of the NI hike is happening. Who would’ve thought
So you’re saying the solution is to hit the poorest the hardest, again? 🤔
First budget made it more expensive to employ people which disproportionately affects entry level roles and now the second budget will likely increase income tax for higher and additional rate payers so will squeeze those left in employment.
Have to say it’s a kick in the teeth when they’re also simultaneously limiting tax relief mechanisms like salary sacrifice and increasing the welfare bill.
I’d like to have kids too, but being responsible about it feels like I’m being punished?
Something I’ve noticed about the job market the past year or two is that when someone gets promoted or otherwise leaves their job in a company, whereas before the company would recruit to replace them, nowadays they don’t bother and just spread the same amount of work around fewer people.
So even if your team of ten has over time become a team of seven, those seven people are expected to do nearly 50% more work each with not even a thought given to maybe hiring a couple of people back.
If that’s happening across the country, the gradual increase in unemployment rate isn’t a surprise at all.
Good news is though eventually you will be able to earn more being unemployed than being employed…
Crack with your down votes, but the last “once in a life time” budget crippled the economy.
Loads of firms scaled back on expanding or hiring to pay for hikes in tax.
This is the result.
Now she’s back, and it was all for nothing and there is another black hole that needs “non working people “ to fill.
Taking money from hard working people that then will have less income to spend in the economy.
The only conclusion is they don’t know what they are doing.
I never thought I’d say this but I’d rather Sunak and hunt back
The employer NIC really killed hiring, the company i worked for couldn’t hire anyone extra because of it, we only just managed to keep our jobs.
Our economy is heavily reliant on services. Automation and AI is going to decimate employment opportunities. If the foundation of our economy isn’t supplying money to the rest of it we are in for big trouble!
No good being a tradesmen if there is no trade for you to undertake.
The capitalist model does not work with an economy that is heavily automated. Mechanically or AI.
We must find a way to share wealth far more equally than it is now to keep the whole thing chugging along. No good just have 100 people with all the money.
I’m in a temporary job right now. I do it each Christmas and have been offered full time work with the said company in the past. Its a great working environment, the amount of absolute drivel that apply for the job is beyond insane.
We have had druggies, people who argue with the manager, people who say they have anxiety so they can’t work in the office, the lot. Many people don’t wanna work. I’m in the sticks. God forbid the city where’s there’s thousands of more jobs.
“The ONS has said the unemployment rate should be treated with caution and it is taking additional steps to address concerns about the quality of the data.”
When actually is this budget? Feel like ive been hearing about it for a lifetime.
The solution is simple: tax working people more and give tax cuts to landlords and billionaires! It’s going to trickle down any minute now! I swear to god bro, just one more tax cut to the rich will do it bro.
I have been critical on Labour’s handling of the economy since the budget last year. They created factors that incentivised employers to squeeze existing workforces rather than maintain a consistent one. When people leave, employers at this time due to NI and NMW changes simply stretch existing workers in order to not replace and save money.
It also was another push for companies to offshore work, something that started in the lockdowns became a great way for companies to hire workers in places like India and Philippines for a tenth of the cost compared to a UK worker.
Even without Trump’s tariffs and the wider sluggishness of the G7 economies, Labour created an economic environment that has led to one of the worst job hunting markets since the 2008 global recession. This government still hasn’t reached a quarter growth as high as Rishi Sunak got, which 0.8% in Q1 2024
In August 2024, one month after Labour took power there were 884,000 payed vacancies in the job market. In October 2025 there were 717,000. 167,000 paid vacancies have disappeared while unemployment increased. Over the year people kept telling me a plethora of different things like: ‘The ONS is flawed’ ’14 years of Tory incompetence’ ‘What about Brexit’ ‘What about Trump’ and so many many other factors that ignored the fact that Labour, with it’s budget created the conditions for this mess to occur.
Labour is to blame, they are in charge.
Well yeah:
Big tax rises to stop non pensioners spending.
Big tax rises on anyone trying to employ people.
Basically zero gdp growth. High inflation. High interest rates (stagflation).
A dozen other similar issues
This is like a case study in “why would a country see an increase in unemployment?”.
It’s kind of frustrating that we all know the only answer to this will be more taxes so we can spend more on non working people while running a fat deficit and not even delivering any of the keys promises people voted for
It’s not surprising we’re seeing unemployment rise again. The increase in NI contributions has added extra pressure on both employers and employees, reducing take home pay by the highly expected income tax on working people coming in the budget. Making hiring more expensive. Combine that with eye watering high energy costs, some of the highest business tax rates in decades, and soaring ground rents (especially for those who don’t own their land), and it’s no wonder many small and medium sized businesses are struggling to stay open.
I haven’t seen a single political party besides the greens talk about the devastating impact AI is having on employment rates.
If the rich own all the resources, own all the wealth, own all the property, and don’t even employ people, or do their best to avoid tax, where are you expected to take tax from? The increasingly poor working people of which there are increasingly few of?
Many here are talking about the last budget, which of course would have been a factor, but my experience in Tech at least has been we are also seeing the impact of AI. I’ve seen a dramatic decrease in the number of early career roles where AI is ‘good enough’ to act as a replacement for a hire. Marketing and Customer Support are two areas I’ve seen a large reduction in new hires. QA, Localization, design, and engineering don’t seem to be refilling vacated roles too, just current employees expected to do more with less because they’re now AI-assisted.