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The Guardian
6 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
UK unemployment rises to highest level in nearly four years
Unemployment in the UK rose in April to the highest level in almost four years, official figures showed, as tax increases introduced by Rachel Reeves added to a broader slowdown in the jobs market. In a blow for the chancellor before Wednesday's spending review, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobless rate increased to 4.6% in the three months to the end of April, up from 4.5% on the previous three-month period to hit the highest level since summer 2021. Annual growth in regular wages also slowed to 5.2%, below City economists forecasts for a reading of 5.3%. Liz McKeown, the ONS director of economic statistics, said: 'There continues to be weakening in the labour market, with the number of people on payroll falling notably. Feedback from our vacancies survey suggests some firms may be holding back from recruiting new workers or replacing people when they move on. 'Earnings growth has slowed in both cash and real terms, though it remains strong by historic standards. Public sector pay is now growing at a higher rate than wages in the private sector.' Unemployment is measured using the ONS's widely criticised labour force survey, which has suffered from collapsing response rates. Experts have argued this leaves policymakers 'flying blind', with the prospect that decisions are being taken based on flawed data. However, separate figures showed the number of workers on UK company payrolls collapsed at the fastest rate since the height of the Covid pandemic, with a monthly drop of 109,000 in May. Vacancies also fell by 63,000 over the three months to the end of May. The latest figures give the first indication of the impact of April's £25bn rise in employer national insurance contributions (NICs), affecting almost 1m businesses, as well as a 6.7% rise in the national living wage. Suren Thiru, the economics director at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, said: 'These figures suggest that the UK's jobs market took a damaging hit from 'Awful April', with the tough reality of sharply rising NICs and national living wage costs pushing more employers to cut staff. 'The UK's labour market is in a painful period with eye-wateringly high business costs likely to mean more job losses this year, particularly if the spending review increases the odds of more tax hikes in the autumn budget.' Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Businesses in typically lower-paying sectors, including hospitality, leisure and retail, had warned jobs could be hit. It comes as the Bank of England monitors the jobs market for signs of weaker conditions as policymakers consider whether to cut interest rates further after four earlier reductions in borrowing costs to 4.25%. Threadneedle Street is widely expected to keep rates on hold next week amid heightened uncertainty over the impact of Donald Trump's increasingly erratic trade wars on the world economy. Alison McGovern, the employment minister, said the government was putting in place more help for jobseekers. 'Supporting more people into work and putting more money in the pockets of working people is at the heart of our plan for change,' she said.
Daily Mail
13 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Mail's shocking 'cash for visas' scam expose shows the UK is an 'immigration free for all', Shadow Justice Minister Robert Jenrick warns
Robert Jenrick demanded Labour end the immigration 'free-for-all' yesterday after the Mail revealed how crooked legal advisers run cash for visas scams. The Shadow Justice Secretary hailed our 'crucial' undercover investigation which exposed how companies are charging up to £22,000 per person to provide 'skilled' jobs in the UK for underqualified foreign workers. Our probe discovered range of brazen tricks being used to dupe the Home Office into providing sponsorship licences enabling convenience stores, barbers, warehouses and bars across the country to bring in overseas labour on false pretences. It is so lucrative that many firms have started up just to profit from hiring foreign staff and then exploit them for cheap labour. Immigration advisers working as fixers for the firms coach immigrants how to lie to officials, overstating their levels of education and experience to secure the visa. Mr Jenrick said: 'This crucial Daily Mail investigation shows our immigration system is a free-for-all. 'Scammers are lining their pockets while the public have yet more low-skilled migration forced upon them. 'It's gone on for decades and the public are sick to death of it.' He called for the adviser exposed by the Mail to face the 'toughest possible punishment.' 'The Government will only bring this farce to an end if they radically reduce numbers to historic levels officials can properly control.' Mr Estibeiro told our undercover reporter that he works with businesses in Bradford, Leicester, Northampton and Peterborough, but only takes payment for his services via third party bank accounts to avoid any paper trail linking the firm to his scam Border security minister Dame Angela Eagle launched an urgent investigation into our probe. She also immediately suspended the sponsorship licence of Leicester-based immigration advice firm Flyover International after the Mail revealed its managing partner tricks the Home Office into believing employers need a certificate of sponsorship to take on overseas workers. Joe Estibeiro told our undercover reporter that he works with businesses in Bradford, Leicester, Northampton and Peterborough, but only takes payment for his services via third party bank accounts to avoid any paper trail linking the firm to his scam. He makes it appear that employers can't find any British residents to fill 'skilled' jobs by first advertising the positions in the UK and only recording interviews with the worst candidates to use as evidence if they are investigated by the Home Office. The overseas workers he recruits officially earn around £3000 a month to meet the government's minimum salary requirements for skilled worker visas. But he described how after the money is paid into their account they have to withdraw all but £900 and secretly hand it back to their boss. Mr Estibeiro even claimed the Government didn't care if companies bring in unqualified staff on skilled worker visas, insisting: 'The Home Office is just interested in the money.' More than 131,000 businesses are now on the Home Office's list for licensed sponsors for the permits which includes market traders, dog groomers – listed as 'canine beauticians' - curtain fitters and even scores of kebab shops. Critics warned the open duplicity could sink Sir Keir Starmer's immigration crackdown which made new restrictions on the skilled worker visas a major part of his aim to end the economy's addiction to cheap overseas labour. Dame Angela said: 'Since taking office there have been 40 per cent fewer visa applications, we have removed nearly 30,000 people with no right to be here and arrests from illegal working raids are up 51%. 'We announced in the Immigration White Paper that backs British workers and ends the economy's addiction to cheap overseas labour. 'And under our new Borders legislation, the Immigration Advice Authority will get new powers to immediately suspend registered advisers and organisations suspected of carrying out the most flagrant abuse of the system, bringing them in line with legal regulators.' A Home Office source claimed when Mr Jenrick was immigration minister he had failed clamp down on the criminal gangs fueling illegal immigration. The source added: 'If he needs reminding what the Labour government has done to tackle this, we've introduced a new law to prevent suspected crooks like the one found by the brilliant journalism in the Daily Mail - so the Immigration Advice Authority will get new powers to immediately suspend registered advisers and organisations.' Flyover International is owned by another man who is understood to be taking the matter seriously and investigating and says that Mr Estibeiro was not officially hired to work in the UK end of the business. Mr Estibeiro denied involvement in any 'illegal or unethical' activity and said he was 'solely involved in student recruitment' and insisted he always told anyone who enquired about Certificates of Sponsorship for skilled worker visas that 'we do not deal with such matters.'
CTV News
4 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Statistics Canada set to publish May employment figures
Construction workers on a new condo site in Saint John, New Brunswick on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes OTTAWA — Statistics Canada is set to reveal employment numbers for May today. A poll of economists provided by LSEG Data & Analytics heading into today's release calls for a loss of 12,500 jobs last month and for the unemployment rate to rise a tenth of a percentage point to seven per cent. RBC Economics says it's expecting employment and the jobless rate held steady in May. Canada's unemployment rate rose two ticks to 6.9 per cent in April amid a gain of 7,400 jobs. That month's figures got a one-time boost in hiring tied to the federal election but also showed a contraction in manufacturing as the tariff dispute with the United States started to bite. The Bank of Canada will be watching the labour market data closely just two days after it left its benchmark interest rate on hold for a second straight time. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2025.
Reuters
03-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Italy April jobless rate falls to 5.9%, below forecast
ROME, June 3 (Reuters) - Italy's jobless rate fell to 5.9% in April from 6.1% in March, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported on Tuesday, with a stable number of people employed during the month and an increase in those leaving the labour market. A Reuters survey of seven analysts had forecast an April jobless rate of 6.1%. ISTAT gave the following data: r=revised
Reuters
31-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
BoE's Breeden sees loosening labour market and disinflation, Sunday Times reports
MANCHESTER, England, May 31 (Reuters) - Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden highlighted a weakening labour market and slow economic growth in an interview published on Saturday, adding that "waves of disinflation are continuing". She told the Sunday Times that the central bank's narrative about continuing interest rate cuts was "not a million miles away from where the market is". Breeden, deputy governor for financial stability, is widely regarded as a centrist on the nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee. In May, she voted with the majority to cut interest rates by 0.25 percentage points, in a three-way split vote where two members voted to hold rates, and another two voted for a larger cut. "The big picture, the landscape on which I'm thinking about policy, is that the waves of disinflation are continuing," Breeden said. "I think the labour market is loosening. We've seen unemployment rise a little bit, and in addition we've got relatively weak growth." She added that she had no pre-determined path for interest rates. Financial markets on Friday priced between two and three more quarter-point interest rate cuts between now and the end of the year, while a Reuters poll of economists published last week pointed to two.
