Employers across the UK are scaling back hiring plans as rising labour costs and economic volatility take their toll, with new data showing workforce expansion expectations at their weakest level in a decade outside the pandemic.
The latest Labour Market Outlook from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) reveals that the net employment intention — the difference between employers planning to hire and those expecting to cut jobs — has dropped to just 8. That’s down from 13 in the previous quarter and the lowest figure recorded since the CIPD began tracking the measure in 2014, excluding the exceptional lows of the Covid-19 crisis.
The drop in hiring optimism is particularly stark among large private-sector employers and retailers. Public-sector hiring remains sluggish too, especially in the education sector. Only 32 per cent of private-sector employers surveyed said they planned to increase staff over the next three months, while nearly a quarter (24 per cent) said they were preparing for redundancies.
A parallel report from KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) reinforces the picture of a cooling labour market. April saw a continued decline in demand for both permanent and temporary staff, while the number of jobseekers rose sharply due to restructuring and layoffs.
The south of England experienced the most pronounced drop in permanent appointments, with London recording the smallest decline. Engineering was the only sector to buck the trend, while vacancies fell steeply in nursing, retail, and hospitality. Temporary roles were down across all ten tracked sectors, led by retail.
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