One in three UK firms ‘expect to make redundancies’

One in three UK employers expect to make staff redundant between July and September, a survey suggests.

The research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and recruiter Adecco shows a 50% jump in the number of employers expecting to cut jobs compared to three months ago.

In the private sector, 38% of firms plan to make redundancies, compared to 16% in the public sector.

Firms with plans to hire rose – but numbers were down on past years.

‘Sombre autumn’

There have been an increasing number of job cuts as the coronavirus pandemic wiped more than a quarter off UK economic output.

In the month leading up to 9 July, more than 2,000 employers were asked whether they planned to make redundancies.

While 33% said they did expect to let staff go, another 49% said they planned to hire in the three months until the end of September.

That indicated an increase in confidence compared to the previous quarter when just 40% said they planned to take on new staff.

However, that figure was still “well below” levels seen in previous years, the report’s authors said. And the proportion of employers planning to hire, relative to those expecting to let go of staff, had fallen to its lowest level since 2013 when the survey began in its current form, they said.

Gerwyn Davies, an advisor at the CIPD, predicted a “sombre autumn for jobs”.

“This is the weakest set of data we’ve seen for several years,” he said.

“Until now, redundancies have been low – no doubt due to the Job Retention Scheme – but we expect to see more redundancies come through this autumn, especially in the private sector once the scheme closes.

“Hiring confidence is rising tentatively, but this probably won’t be enough to offset the rise in redundancies and the number of new graduates and school leavers entering the labour market over the next few months.”

It comes as data from the Centre for Retail Research suggests that more than 22,000 restaurant jobs have been slashed already this year. That is more than double the number announced throughout the entire of 2019.

Last week Pizza Express said it was considering closing 67 of its UK restaurants, which would mean the loss of 1,100 jobs.