Hospitality and retail jobs plummet since Rachel Reeves's budget
An analysis of figures from HM Revenue & Customs by The Times showed that pay-rolled employment in the retail sector fell by 45,600 in the nine months since the budget. On average, the sector added 3,400 jobs over that same period in the previous ten years, suggesting that the national insurance increase has prompted retailers to cut staff. The minimum wage also rose by 6.7 per cent in April.
The same trend is evident in the hospitality sector. Since the budget, pay-rolled employment has fallen by 83,800 compared with an average gain of 30,900 over the same nine-month period in the previous decade.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
18 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
HMRC and banks should 'nudge' the self-employed into saving towards a pension, says think tank
The Government must allow HMRC and financial service firms to 'nudge' the self-employed to save towards retirement or face a pension crisis, a think tank has said. The Social Market Foundation (SMF) has warned that large numbers of entrepreneurs will face pension poverty if the Government does not take further action to help. Currently, more than 3million self-employed workers are not paying into their pensions. A report commissioned by the SMF and Monzo found that only 20 per cent of self-employed workers participate in a pension scheme, compared to 78 per cent of employees. Of those who do contribute, just under a third commit the same amount to their pension every month, while employees tend to contribute a percentage of their earnings monthly. It comes just weeks after the Government launched a new pensions review to ensure everyone saves enough for retirement, but will not issue a report until 2027. Chief among the government's concerns is that nearly half of working-age adults are saving nothing at all into a pension, despite auto-enrolment into work schemes. It highlighted lower earners and the self-employed as those particularly at risk. SMF's survey, conducted by Monzo, which also commissioned the report, also found that 30 per cent of self-employed workers contribute to their retirement pot less frequently than once a month, and 10 per cent put money away less than once a year. The SMF found that the most common reason for not contributing is that self-employed workers believe they 'can't afford to', while nearly two-thirds reported they either 'don't really understand' or 'have a basic understanding' of pensions. This is partly because there is no mechanism, like auto-enrolment for employees, to encourage the self-employed to put money away every month for retirement. While some entrepreneurs have access to financial advisers to help with retirement planning, the SMF says this is generally only accessible to the wealthiest. While generic advice can be 'complex or irrelevant'. John Asthana Gibson, research at SMF said: 'The low rates of pensions saving by self-employed workers should be a huge cause for concern for policymakers. 'If trends continue, large numbers of Britain's entrepreneurs will struggle to live to the standards they rightly expect in retirement. 'It's simply untenable for the government to continue to overlook this problem. 'We should build on the success of auto-enrolment for employees and ensure that people in this crucial but often forgotten part of the labour force are encouraged to sufficiently save for their retirement.' As such, the SMF is calling for proposals to offer targeted support to help people start investing be fast-tracked. In the long term, it suggests working with HMRC to integrate 'nudges' into self-assessment tax forms, which would include an opt-out auto-enrolment box. James Shafe, Monzo's group policy director backed the SMF's calls for reform to 'allow financial institutions to champion better retirement savings habits amongst the self-employed and help millions to secure their long-term financial future.'
Reuters
18 minutes ago
- Reuters
Stocks, US yields lose ground as markets brace for big week for trade, geopolitics
NEW YORK/LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Global equity markets lost ground on Monday in a choppy session while yields of long-dated U.S. Treasuries fell, as investors weighed developments on trade and geopolitics in addition to key U.S. economic data. U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order extending a tariff truce with China by another 90 days, hours before U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods were due to snap back to triple-digit rates. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are due to meet in Alaska on Friday to discuss ending Russia's war on Ukraine. On Wall Street, all three main indexes finished lower. Energy, real estate, and technology stocks were the biggest losers while consumer staples, consumer discretionary, and healthcare stocks gained. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), opens new tab fell 0.45%, the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab slipped 0.25% and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), opens new tab gave up 0.30%. In Europe, the STOXX 600 (.STOXX), opens new tab index eased 0.06%. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS), opens new tab was down 0.25% to 938.16, trading near its record high reached in July. "At the surface level, the market is flat and calm, and it looks like we are in wait-and-see mode to see the economic data we are going to get tomorrow," said Wasif Latif, chief investment officer at Sarmaya Partners in New Jersey. "When you look underneath the covers and at the breakdown within the market, you're getting a little bit more of a selloff." The main economic release this week will be U.S. consumer prices on Tuesday, with analysts expecting the impact of tariffs to help nudge the core up 0.3% to an annual pace of 3%, away from the Federal Reserve target of 2%. An upside surprise would challenge market wagers for a September rate cut, though analysts assume it would have to be a high number given that a downward turn in payrolls is now dominating the outlook. Markets imply around a 90% probability of a September easing, and at least one more cut by year-end. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes dipped 0.2 basis points to 4.281%, while the 30-year bond yield fell 0.5 basis points to 4.8494%. Trump has repeatedly criticised the Fed for not cutting rates at recent meetings, and markets are eyeing who will succeed current Chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May. This means the dollar's reaction to the CPI data will not be straightforward, said Paul Mackel, global head of FX research at HSBC. If the figure indicated higher U.S. tariff price pressures, "that could support the stagflation narrative, and to the dollar's detriment", he said, adding that this would also go against the view of some policymakers that tariffs were not causing prices to increase. "If, however, softer U.S. CPI readings materialise, including the core goods figures, this would likely challenge the dollar too by supporting the case for further Fed easing, and perhaps see greater criticism from the U.S. administration towards Fed Chair Powell." The dollar strengthened 0.26% to 148.11 against the Japanese yen and was up 0.47% to 0.812 against the Swiss franc . The euro was down 0.21% against the dollar at $1.1615. The dollar index rose 0.27% to 98.50. The Australian dollar eased 0.18% to $0.6512 ahead of a meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia, which is widely expected to back a rate cut. It stunned markets in July by skipping an easing of policy to await more inflation data. Gold prices fell 1.50% to $3,347.69 an ounce after Trump said tariffs will not be placed on imported gold bars. U.S. gold futures for December delivery settled 2.5% lower at $3,404.70 an ounce. Oil prices settled flat as investors looked ahead to talks between Trump and Putin in Alaska on Friday, with U.S. policy towards Russian oil exports in focus. Brent settled up 0.06% to $66.63 a barrel, while U.S. crude settled up 0.13% to $63.96.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Dollar edges up with US inflation report on tap
NEW YORK, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar firmed across the board on Monday, a day before the release of a U.S. inflation report that could help determine whether the Federal Reserve lowers borrowing costs next month. The dollar index was up 0.3% at 98.52 after last week's 0.4% fall. Against the yen, the U.S. currency traded at 148.085 , up 0.2%. Japanese markets were closed on Monday for the Mountain Day holiday. The euro was down 0.3% at $1.16123, while sterling was down 0.2% at $1.34335. "The buck is trading a little firmer against all peers, though the moves are overall modest in nature," said Michael Brown, market analyst at online broker Pepperstone in London. "A very modest hawkish repricing of Fed policy expectations appears to be helping the move along, likely driven by participants squaring up some positions ahead of the risk that tomorrow's CPI print presents," he said. The dollar softened last week as investors adjusted their expectations for interest rate cuts from the Fed after soft data on U.S. jobs and manufacturing. Fed officials have sounded increasingly uneasy about the labor market, signaling their openness to a rate cut as soon as September. Cooling inflation could cement bets for a cut next month, but if signs emerge that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs are fuelling price rises, that might keep the Fed on hold for now. "It's important to note ahead of tomorrow's data that the bar for a hawkish surprise is higher," said Francesco Pesole, FX strategist at ING. Pesole added that a 0.3% monthly rise in core CPI would give the Fed room to lower interest rates, given the deterioration in the labor market. Economists polled by Reuters expect core CPI to have risen 0.3% in July, pushing the annual rate higher to 3%. Money market traders are pricing in around a 90% chance of a rate cut next month, while 58 basis points of easing are priced in by year-end, implying two quarter-point cuts and around a one-in-three chance of a third. The dollar was little swayed by Trump signing an executive order extending a pause in sharply higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports for another 90 days, a move that some market participants said was expected. With the United States and China seeking to close a deal averting triple-digit goods tariffs, a U.S. official told Reuters that chip makers Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab and AMD (AMD.O), opens new tab had agreed to allocate 15% of China sales revenues to the U.S. government, aiming to secure export licences for semiconductors. The Australian dollar fetched $0.6515 , trading down 0.2% ahead of a rate decision on Tuesday, in which it is widely expected that the Reserve Bank of Australia will cut rates by 25 bps to 3.60%, after second-quarter inflation came in weaker than expected and the jobless rate hit a 3-1/2-year high. Cryptocurrencies rose, with bitcoin up 1.1% at $119,679, not far from its July 14 record of $123,153.22, after Trump's executive order on Thursday freed up cryptocurrency holdings in U.S. retirement accounts. Ether rose 1.9% to $4,298.23, its highest since December 2021.
