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UK jobs market - August 2023

ended 14. August 2023

Tomorrow morning at 07:00, the latest jobs market data is being published by the Office for National Statistics. Ahead of this, we're keen to get your views on what's happening in the labour market right now, which we will send to local, trade and national media tomorrow AM when the data drops. A handful of Qs below (please answer any or all).

  • How confident are companies (your clients) about hiring right now?
  • Are you seeing more cases of companies being forced to lay off staff in the current economic climate?
  • Which sectors of the economy are holding up well and which are under pressure?
  • Are staff still asking for pay rises in the way they were a year ago?
  • What other trends are you seeing in the jobs market that you think are important?

Any other thoughts, jot them down.

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Adam Myers0
Head Of HR Consulting at Stellamar
All of our clients are having problems hiring. It's very much a buyer's market right now. There's also a socio-cultural disconnect. We are seeing organisations, which are mainly being run by Gen X and Boomers, fail to understand what they need to do to attract Gen Z and in some cases Millennials. Money, benefits and good work-life balance via flexible and remote working are all on the agenda of job seekers. Generally speaking, companies at present are proving cautious around hiring, but this is mainly due to the lack of talent rather than economic reasons. Manufacturing, retail and hospitality appear to be the sectors struggling to hire most.
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Sarah LoatesVerified
Director at Loates HR Consultancy
It's really tough in the jobs market right now. We've seen a slight uptick in redundancy enquiries, only a trickle at the moment, and we hope it doesn't turn into a tsunami. SMEs are increasingly planning for worst-case scenarios, but we're hoping they don't have to enact their plans. Aside from ongoing recruitment challenges, we are also seeing employers struggling to shoulder the April National Minimum Wage and Living Wage increases, especially those in hospitality and retail, due to the volume of lower-paid workers. This is also causing a knock-on effect for leader-level roles in these sectors, as the gap between entry-level positions and team leaders is squeezed.