July Labour Market Statistics: comment from the Institute for Employment Studies
18 Jul 2024
Commenting on today's figures, Tony Wilson, Director at the Institute for Employment Studies said:
“The first jobs data of this Parliament lays bare the scale of the challenges facing the new Labour government. There are now half a million more people out of work than this time last year, driven by more people outside of the labour force entirely. This is despite nearly 900,000 job openings in the economy and continued reports of employers struggling to recruit. Earnings growth also remains strong, at close to 6% a year, while redundancies are close to their lowest ever. The Prime Minister spoke yesterday about taking the brakes off Britain, and there’s few areas where this more applies than in the labour market. To get back to sustained growth we need to help more people to get back into work. The government’s early announcements are welcome, and particularly plans for a new Jobs and Careers Service and for a focus locally on joining up employment, skills and health support. However we also need to move quickly to address the cliff-edges in funding that the last government has left.”