Responding to the latest labour market figures from the ONS published this morning, Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation said:
“This morning's data is no surprise. The employment rate has been buoyant because of the furlough scheme and has started to drop as it ends and employers are forced to make redundancies where they cannot be avoided. The pick-up in unemployment and spike in redundancies emphasises again that tackling rising unemployment needs a team effort from Government and businesses designed to help people transition to growing areas of the labour market. The increasing number of vacancies emphasises that jobs are being created, in line with what our Jobs Recovery Tracker has been saying. The situation is already very different to the period covered by the ONS – we’re counted 1.2 million job ads across the UK right now.
“The data underpins the importance of getting the winter right economically. Making sure we support demand in the economy and people unable to work should be our priority. This means supporting temporary workers affected by local lockdowns and looking at how to support all the businesses in the affected supply chains that stand to lose out. Cutting employers National Insurance contributions could help boost hiring and keep people in work. It's important we also focus on measures that will affect the economy in the long-term, securing a Brexit deal that guarantees smooth trading relations with the EU which is essential for our economic stability.”
