United Kingdom Jobs Market

Lord Hunt of Wirral Excerpts

Wednesday 11th June 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Hunt of Wirral]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the jobs market in the United Kingdom.

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Katz) (Lab)]

My Lords, a near-record number of people are in employment. This has been driven by a fall in economic inactivity, which is now at its lowest rate since 2023. For people in work, real earnings have continued to grow. We want to continue this trajectory and achieve our long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate by reforming employment, health and skills support, as set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper.

[Lord Hunt of Wirral (Con)]

My Lords, 274,000 jobs have already vanished on this Government’s watch and the OBR has already warned that the Employment Rights Bill will have an additional negative impact on levels of employment. Why are the Government so stubbornly pursuing and continuing with this legislation—which can only be called the unemployment Bill—when their own forecaster is saying that the Bill will destroy jobs?

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for his question. I have enjoyed debating issues around the Government’s flagship Employment Rights Bill with him during some fairly lengthy Committee sessions. Given the debate we had last night, I am somewhat surprised that he returned to this field. We discussed just yesterday evening how one of the main aspects of the Employment Rights Bill is delivering our manifesto commitment to repeal the previous Government’s failed Trade Union Act 2016. I remind noble Lords that that Act delivered more strike days: 2.7 million days were lost to strikes in 2023 and 2.5 million in 2024—the highest levels since 1989. That Act failed and that is why we are reforming it.

To pick up the noble Lord’s point on our economic record, let us have a look at it: employment has risen by 0.5 million since the general election and is now at a record high. Economic inactivity is down by more than 20%. Earnings are up and vacancies are down. We have a plan for change and a plan to invest in Britain’s renewal, and we are sticking to those plans.