Jobs Carnage Under Labour: Payrolls Plunge in Fastest Fall Since Covid as Labour’s Tax Raid Bites

Britain’s jobs market has suffered a dramatic collapse – the worst since the pandemic – in the wake of Rachel Reeves’s brutal tax raid on workers and businesses.

Official figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal that the number of people on payrolls nosedived by a staggering 109,000 between April and May, crashing to 30.2 million. It marks the steepest monthly drop in employment for five years, echoing the devastation seen when Covid first hit the UK.

The Chancellor’s eye-watering £25billion National Insurance tax raid, combined with another inflation-busting minimum wage hike, has been blamed for the economic body blow – with the early data painting a bleak picture for British workers.

Even more worrying, the ONS said it had underestimated job losses in April, revising the figure down to a loss of 55,000 jobs – far worse than the previously reported 33,000.

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith didn’t hold back, saying: 

“It is disappointing but no surprise that unemployment is up again. Businesses are still absorbing a £25bn jobs tax but things are about to get even worse as Labour’s £5bn unemployment bill hits businesses with higher regulation.”

In total, a shocking 274,000 jobs have vanished over the past year, a period coinciding with Ms Reeves’s relentless tax clampdown since Labour seized power.

The unemployment rate has also surged to 4.6 per cent in the three months to April – the highest level since the summer of 2021, when the UK was still staggering out of lockdowns.

Yet while the private sector bleeds jobs, public sector employment has soared to its highest level in 14 years – jumping to almost 6.2 million workers as Reeves prepares to unveil a staggering £300billion public spending splurge this week.

ONS data also shows the number of civil servants has climbed to 550,000, up by 6,000 in a year – pushing total central government staff to a record-breaking 4 million.

Much of this ballooning workforce has been driven by a surge in NHS jobs and the reclassification of some school staff. The NHS alone now employs a record 2.1 million people, up 44,000 in a year – and is set to be the biggest winner from Reeves’s upcoming review.

Meanwhile, private sector jobseekers are being battered by the toughest labour market since the pandemic, with job adverts slumping to 736,000, down from 760,000 just a few months ago.

Wage growth has also taken a hit, with earnings rising by 5.2 per cent in the three months to April – the slowest pace in seven months.

The economic storm has spooked the markets, with traders now betting heavily on interest rate cuts as the Bank of England faces growing pressure to act. Markets now price in an 81 per cent chance of a rate cut in August, up from 68 per cent before the ONS bombshell.

The pound tumbled 0.5 per cent against the dollar, falling below $1.35.

And despite the job losses, public sector workers continue to pull ahead in the pay stakes. Excluding bonuses, wages rose by 5.6 per cent in the public sector from February to April, compared with just 5.1 per cent in the private sector.

The brutal contrast paints a stark picture of Britain under Labour: a bloated state, surging public payrolls – and a private sector in retreat.