REC comments on Labour leader’s speech on economy

Commenting on Labour leader Keir Starmer’s speech at UK Finance this morning, Shazia Ejaz, REC Director of Campaigns, said:

“Recruiters urge both businesses and governments to heed the call in today’s speech to work in partnership on people planning as new job adverts hit a 14-month high and the number of existing job adverts sits at more than 1.3 million. The UK economy stands to lose up to £39 billion in GDP every year from 2024 unless business and governments act on labour shortages. Business needs to take a long-term view with their hiring, and we need a proper skills and labour market strategy from Westminster.

“We support moves to improve people’s working lives. That also means more flexibility if we are to encourage people with caring responsibilities, the over 50s or long-term unemployed, back into work. Let’s not unintentionally prevent people from working in a way that suits both them and their employers.

“Recruiters are supportive of more flexible skills training for apprenticeships and the short courses mentioned in today’s speech. But this must include a focus on entry-level training and apprenticeships, where employers are reporting significant staff shortages.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

Labour Market Tracker: New job ads hit a 14-month high as businesses still need to hire – 24 February 2023. ‘Active’ job postings are those which were live online during the specified time period. ‘New’ job postings are those which were added to the active stock during the specified time period.

Overcoming shortages - How to create a sustainable labour market – July 2022. In this report, we show exactly how much damage could be done if we don’t step up. With a 10% surge in demand for staff across the economy, and the labour market restricted by shortages, we could see a 1.2% fall in expected GDP and productivity by 2027 – costing the economy anywhere between £30 billion and £39 billion every year. This figure is just short of the entire current defence budget, or two whole Elizabeth Lines.

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