Employment lawyers have said that the government’s consultation on reforms to zero-hours contracts and agency worker protections could provide the clearest indication yet of how an Andy Burnham-led government may approach employment law and labour market regulation.
The comments come in the wake of Burnham’s victory in the Makerfield by-election. The Greater Manchester mayor is widely expected to challenge Sir Keir Starmer over the leadership of the Labour party.
According to employment specialists at Constantine Law, a Burnham-led government may signal a more “interventionist” approach to workplace regulation than Starmer. However, this is countered by the fact that he has sought out advice from Andy Haldane, a former Bank of England chief economist; Richard Hughes, a former chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility; and Jim O’Neill, a crossbench peer and former Treasury minister who worked on George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse.
Guaranteed hoursTrade body warns guaranteed hours reform risks retail jobs
Employer bodies urge ministers to keep zero-hours reforms simple
Retailers say guaranteed hours should only apply under 8 hours
Constantine Law argues that one of the key challenges facing any future administration would be balancing Labour’s commitment to strengthening workers’ rights with the need to promote economic growth and preserve the flexibility that has long characterised the UK labour market.
Zero hoursIt said the most consequential reforms may be around zero hours, which are under consultation until 25 August.
This includes proposals that could reshape workforce flexibility across a range of sectors, including healthcare, retail, hospitality, logistics, and agriculture, including agency work.
The decisions taken on zero-hours reform will tell employers a great deal about the direction of travel under any future Burnham administration” – John Hayes, Constantine Law
John Hayes, managing partner at Constantine Law, said the consultation represented an important test of the government’s policy direction.
“The decisions taken on zero-hours reform will tell employers a great deal about the direction of travel under any future Burnham administration,” he said. “The consultation presents a series of choices that could either preserve labour market flexibility or impose substantial new obligations on employers.”
Issues under consideration include the length of reference periods used to calculate guaranteed hours, eligibility criteria for guaranteed-hours offers, minimum notice periods for shifts, and compensation arrangements when shifts are cancelled or changed at short notice.
Flexibility is keyHayes argued that labour market flexibility has historically been one of the UK’s economic strengths, helping to maintain lower levels of youth unemployment than many European countries.
He added that concerns about rising numbers of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) highlighted the importance of maintaining routes into work.
“The interests of employers and workers are often more aligned than political debates suggest,” Hayes said. “Policymakers must be careful not to undermine those opportunities.”
Vital changesThe government says the zero-hours reforms will end one-sided flexibility and help people plan their finances and daily lives. Those who enjoy the benefits of zero-hour work may keep their existing contracts if they wish.
Ministers maintain that the reforms would help save workers in some of the most deprived areas up to £600 in lost income from the hidden costs of insecure work.
Business secretary Peter Kyle said: “It’s not right that people can work regular hours but still have no certainty about their pay from week to week. These vital changes will mean more certainty for millions of people and will save the lowest-paid workers hundreds of pounds.”
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more human resources jobs
The post An Andy Burnham-led government would face zero-hours dilemma appeared first on Personnel Today.
Probation officers’ excessive workloads are putting the public ‘at direct risk’, according to Napo, the trade union that represents probation and family court staff.
According to union officials, members say they are unable to cope with the growing number of ex-offenders they are being asked to supervise, and could be set to launch strike action.
Last year, an investigation by the National Audit Office found that the Probation Service was “under significant strain” since it returned to full public ownership in 2021.
Staff shortages and skills gaps were major factors in poor performance, the NAO found, with probationers adequately assessing risk of harm in just 28% of cases.
Probation ServiceStaffing issues undermining work of the Probation Service
Unions urge action on ‘unmanageable’ Probation Service
From September, the government is planning to expand its use of tagging for ex-offenders so that up to 40,000 individuals will be monitored by tags and overseen by probation officers. This means a 40% increase in monitoring cases for staff.
Tania Bassett, Napo national official, said: “Excessive workloads and staff burnout poses a direct risk to the public, with staff being unable to effectively manage the risk of their clients in the community.
“Added to this is the shortage of accommodation, which will result in more people being homeless and therefore more likely to reoffend.”
She added that managers were discussing removing a workload measurement tool that would show the level of tasks officers were dealing with, putting them at further risk.
The Ministry of Justice announced plans in March to recruit 1,300 extra probation officers as part of a £700 million investment up to 2029.
The Guardian reports that the union’s executive has voted for a motion that “the current position is untenable and cannot continue”.
The executive claims that HM Prison and Probation Service leadership has “demonstrably failed in its duty of care to the workforce of the Probation Service, and this represents a reckless disregard for our welfare and professional integrity as well as the safety of our communities”.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told the newspaper: “We remain committed to working closely with trade unions to ensure our staff continue to get the support they need to cut crime and protect the public.
“We have full confidence in Probation Service leadership to deliver the necessary changes and improvements.”
HR roles in the local and national government on Personnel Today
Browse more HR roles in the local and national government
The post Probation officers’ union: excessive workload is untenable appeared first on Personnel Today.
Royal Mail has 6,500 postal workers off sick every day, out of a total of about 130,000 employees, its chief executive has warned.
Martin Seidenberg, the chief executive of International Distribution Services (IDS), the Royal Mail owner, told The Times CEO Summit that the business wanted to be at the “vanguard” of efforts to tackle the nation’s economic inactivity problems. The absences at the Royal Mail cost the organisation £200 million a year, he said.
“It has a cost to us, and of course an impact to you, to society, because of the quality that we can deliver or not deliver,” Seidenberg said, adding that was “super important for us to fix”.
In response to its issues with sickness absence, IDS has given all of its 130,000 staff 24-hour access to an online GP.
Labour market and healthMinisters and councils hail early success of Connect to Work scheme
Number of Keep Britain Working ‘vanguard’ employers doubles
Alan Milburn: the labour market is deserting young people
“We’ve been very surprised how heavily this is being used,” Seidenberg said. “We like it, because quite frankly, we believe that the sooner we can take care of our people and they have access to medical support, the sooner they’re likely to return to the job.”
Seidenberg also warned that the UK’s education system was failing to equip children with the technology skills needed when they move into work.
He spoke alongside Sir Charlie Mayfield, the former chairman of John Lewis who led the government’s Keep Britain Working review. Mayfield said it was no surprise that school leavers were generally unprepared for employment because “we’ve created a system where education and employment have never been more separate”.
In addition to what is being taught in the classroom, Mayfield pointed to work experience as an example of how the UK was failing to ready young people for their careers. “People basically don’t do work experience anymore [because] we’ve made it so difficult for people to do it,” he said. He gave an example of a plumber who might be open to having a young person still at school shadow him for a few hours, but cannot because he does not have employers’ liability insurance. “It’s madness and yet it is also fixable. We need to sort out the whole pathways into work.”
One of the traditional ways from school to work is apprenticeships – paid jobs that allow young people to work and gain hands-on experience, while also studying for a formal qualification.
“The easiest and most valuable person to recruit is the one you’ve already got in the business,” Mayfield said. “There are very few opportunities to drive growth that actually benefit employers, benefit individuals, save on welfare, don’t cost a tonne of money and don’t have to take a long time, and these are all right in front of us.”
Also speaking at the summit was Jennie Daly, the chief executive of housebuilder Taylor Wimpey. She told delegates that many employers in the construction industry had scaled back their apprenticeship programmes in response to higher employment costs.
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more human resources jobs
The post Royal Mail boss: 6,500 postal workers off sick every day appeared first on Personnel Today.
As many of us swelter and watch the football and dream of holidays, some are planning Christmas parties. Meanwhile, a new World Cup hero is hailed, thanks to LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a bit like a Facebook for business. Some use it to genuinely network; others to find work. Some use it … well, just to show off. But for Irish-born Roberto Lopes, a footballer for Ireland’s Shamrock Rovers club, LinkedIn was the medium for him to become a legend of the beautiful game.
The defender, nicknamed Pico, was a newly qualified mortgage adviser 10 years ago, playing part-time for Bohemians in the League of Ireland.
A lighthearted take on HRWorld Cup: Has HR gone in studs up?
OK boomer, time to stop botoxing your CV
Watch out for ‘sickfluencers’ down Mexico way
When he was originally contacted in 2018 by Cape Verde football manager Rui Águas in Portuguese, he did what many of us do with unsolicited messages on the platform – he ignored it, thinking it was spam.
It was only when he received a follow-up message from Águas in English that he realised it was an offer to play international football for Cape Verde. Águas had spotted he was eligible to play for the island nation through his father.
Águas wrote: “Hi Roberto, have you had a chance to consider what I said to you?”.
Lopes, now feeling a bit rude about ignoring the original message, put Águas’s words into Google Translate and found it said: “We’re looking at getting new players into the Cape Verde squad and would you be interested in declaring for Cape Verde?”
Cape Verde’s draw with tournament favourites Spain on Monday – one of the biggest shocks of any World Cup as measured by the difference in rankings between the sides – has elevated Lopes to star status, particularly as the team achieved the incredible result while only committing one foul, a new record in the World Cup finals.
The story sent several in the Personnel Today office to check their spam and mentally clean their football boots. But alas, the talent spotters have failed to do their job properly, once again.
June is the new November for HR party-planningA further extreme heatwave beckons, the World Cup is in full flow, the cricket’s on and Wimbledon is about to start. HR is on the alert for absences, productivity lapses and inappropriate banter.
Yet, amid this hot mess, Personnel Today has been alerted that HR should be planning Christmas parties.
According to event booking platform Tagvenue, HR teams are “moving to secure spaces six months in advance” and the Christmas party planning window is moving earlier than ever before, making June and July the new autumn when it comes to festive party planning.
HR teams are increasingly starting the process in June because they know the best venues and dates disappear quickly – Artur Stepaniak, Tagvenue
Such a level of forward-thinking seems wildly inappropriate as air conditioning systems teeter on the edge of collapse, the colleague sent out to buy ice lollies has failed to return and the cluster of lads outside the pub clutching lagers exponentially expands.
There are statistics too – this is no baseless claim. Apparently, 12% of Christmas venue hire activity is taking place in June – marking a 75% increase compared with June 2022. “Hmmm…. 12%? It’s not exactly a rush,” Personnel Today’s resident party planner exclaimed.
Artur Stepaniak, co-founder at Tagvenue, is serious, however, although we are definitely not. He says: “What we’re seeing is a clear shift in how organisations approach their end-of-year celebrations. Christmas parties used to be something many companies thought about in September or October. Now, HR teams are increasingly starting the process in June because they know the best venues and dates disappear quickly.”
As the temperature reaches 30°C, I wonder if the Cape Verde team has its Christmas party planned.
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more human resources jobs
The post Christmas parties in June? World Cup defenders on LinkedIn? appeared first on Personnel Today.
Reports about high youth unemployment sit alongside surveys showing persistent skills shortages. Robin Adda looks at how we can solve the conundrum where young people can’t find work and employers can’t find talent.
The latest report from Skills England paints a worrying picture of the UK labour market. Employers continue to report persistent skills shortages across key sectors, with demand for priority roles expected to grow significantly over the next decade.
This comes at a time when a new major report shows how youth unemployment has risen to its highest level in a decade, with more than one million young people now not in education, employment or training (Neet).
On the surface, these may appear to be two separate issues. In reality, they are intrinsically connected. The solution to both lies in how we identify, develop and invest in skills.
AI will continue to dominate headlines as a key driver behind this and so it should. It is reshaping the workplace at an unprecedented pace. But it is not the whole story.
Early careersNeets could be answer to skills shortage, poll reveals
Young people’s confidence in job market at record low
The bigger issue is that many organisations have become focused on immediate productivity rather than laying the foundations. With rising costs and economic uncertainty, it’s easy to go down this route – consequently, businesses are investing less in the pipeline, while many traditional entry-level opportunities continue to disappear.
Government initiatives such as those outlined in the Skills England report (the Growth and Skills Levy and Youth Guarantee) are positive steps, but they cannot solve this challenge alone.
Employers are still the biggest influence on how talent enters and progresses through the workforce, meaning businesses must play their part.
Here are some areas where businesses can make a tangible difference to their own skills gaps, and the unemployment issue – youth and beyond.
Hire for potential, not just experienceOne of the biggest barriers facing young people today is the expectation that they arrive already equipped – the never-ending cycle of needing experience to get a job and needing a job to get experience.
Employers should place greater emphasis on transferable skills such as curiosity and the ability to learn. Technical skills can often be taught, and many will carve out specialisms in time, but qualities such as resilience, communication, problem-solving and adaptability are increasingly valuable in a workplace shaped by constant change.
So with this, companies should think outside the box when building their hiring process – a CV should not be the sole measure of potential, especially for entry-level roles.
Think of incorporating more unique interview processes, such as live tasks that test problem-solving and attitude – allowing you to uncover the qualities that can’t just be AI’d onto a CV.
Rethink pathways into workMany traditional routes into employment were designed for a very different labour market.
Apprenticeships, internships, graduate schemes and work experience programmes remain important, but they need to evolve alongside employer needs and candidate expectations.
Encouragingly, some organisations are already recognising this. Marks & Spencer recently announced plans to create 1,000 paid traineeships for 16- to 24-year-olds across the UK and Ireland, offering structured training, paid experience and clear progression opportunities without requiring a degree.
Of course, not all have the resources of M&S, but this type of programme is scalable and mouldable. This means any business can create visible pathways into work, help young people gain confidence and experience, while developing talent aligned to their future needs.
Help candidates make skills visibleOne of the most overlooked challenges in recruitment is that valuable skills often go unrecognised.
Young people develop desirable capabilities in countless ways, yet often struggle to articulate them in a way that employers can easily identify.
Skills England’s Youth Employability Summit found that employers consistently value skills such as communication, resilience, teamwork and problem-solving, but that these frequently go unrecognised.
The result is that potential is overlooked, opportunities are missed, and the gap gets wider.
Businesses need to move beyond relying solely on qualifications, job titles and years of experience as indicators of capability. Instead, they should help candidates identify and communicate these transferable skills.
Creating a common language around this enables companies to make better hiring decisions. One way to achieve this is by embedding key skills-based questions into the initial application process, so businesses can uncover valuable potential that may otherwise be hidden behind a CV.
Young people develop desirable capabilities in countless ways, yet often struggle to articulate them in a way that employers can easily identify.
When organisations become more effective at recognising skills during the screening stage, everyone benefits – and businesses reduce the risk of overlooking high-potential candidates simply because they lack traditional work experience on paper.
The days of learning a role once and relying on those skills for an entire career are over, and AI alone is changing job requirements faster than many organisations can keep pace with.
Forward-thinking employers are moving away from one-size-fits-all training models and towards continuous, personalised learning cultures.
Skills mapping, personalised development plans and targeted training programmes can help individuals adapt while ensuring organisations remain resilient in the face of change.
Most importantly, organisations need to stop viewing skills development as a cost and start viewing it as an investment, as it could be cheaper in the long run versus outsourcing work to expensive specialists.
Invest in talent nowSkills shortages and youth unemployment are often discussed as separate challenges. They are not.
Closing that gap will of course require government support, education reform and economic growth. But it will also need employers to recognise the role they have to play – and to be bold in their commitment to entry-level talent.
The M&S programme demonstrates that there are organisations already willing to invest in young people and more businesses need to follow suit.
Investing in AI is important – but there needs to be balance. In this climate, it will take bravery, innovation and long-term thinking from business leaders to take a step back from AI and rebuild the pathways that connect young people to opportunity.
The organisations that succeed over the next decade will not be those that simply adopt the latest technology. They will be the ones that continue to invest in people from the ground up and, at the moment, that’s what’s missing.
Change management opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more Change management jobs
The post What’s missing in the Neet skills puzzle? appeared first on Personnel Today.
The UK jobs market showed signs of resilience in May despite continuing economic and political uncertainty, with the number of active job vacancies rising modestly.
According to the latest Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) Labour Market Tracker, there were 1.62 million active job postings across the UK in May, up 0.8% from April and 8% higher than a year earlier. The figures suggest that demand for workers remains relatively stable despite concerns over global tensions, rising employment costs and changes to labour market regulation.
Labour market trendsSkills gaps could leave half of AI roles unfilled by 2028
Alan Milburn: Employers should prioritise new starters
Young people’s confidence in job market at record low
However, the number of newly advertised roles fell during the month. New job postings totalled 683,121 in May, down 4% compared with April and 9.2% lower than the same month last year, indicating that employers remain cautious about expanding their workforce.
The REC said the overall level of active vacancies had returned to a similar position to that seen in March, suggesting the labour market may be stabilising after recent fluctuations.
While most parts of the UK recorded growth in active job postings, particularly Northern Ireland, London was the only region to see a decline. Some of the sharpest falls were recorded in central London boroughs, including Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Lambeth. The REC said the two bank holidays in May may have disrupted normal hiring patterns and contributed to the declines.
!function(e,n,i,s){var d="InfogramEmbeds";var o=e.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];if(window[d]&&window[d].initialized)window[d].process&&window[d].process();else if(!e.getElementById(i)){var r=e.createElement(n);r.async=1,r.id=i,r.src=s,o.parentNode.insertBefore(r,o)}}(document,"script","infogram-async","https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js");
Demand increased in some sectors, particularly hospitality, agriculture and retail, but the organisation cautioned that it was too early to draw firm conclusions about summer recruitment trends. It said next month’s figures would provide a clearer indication of whether seasonal hiring is gathering pace.
The REC said the labour market had remained resilient despite ongoing political uncertainty, legislative changes and tensions in the Middle East. Any increase in recruitment activity stemming from a decline in hostilities between the US and Iran was likely to be gradual, it said.
Maxine Bligh, the REC’s chief membership and innovation officer, said: “An Iran-US agreement will ease one of the global pressures holding back hiring and investment. But domestic political uncertainty and looming employment law changes still leave many firms without the confidence they need to accelerate recruitment.
“We are likely to see some growth in the job market, but not at full speed, with many businesses continuing to rely on temporary staff until the outlook becomes clearer.
“The government must calm the cost pressures that are shaping every recruitment decision if it wants firms to invest in hiring.”
Yesterday, Thursday 18 June, figures from the Office for National Statistics found that early job vacancy estimates for March to May suggest a decrease of 19,000 (2.6%) vacancies to 707,000, compared with December to February. This was the lowest level since February to April 2021.
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more human resources jobs
The post Number of UK job vacancies increased in May appeared first on Personnel Today.
With the World Cup finals in the USA now well under way, HR experts are continuing to warn organisations over the potential for workplace disruption because of absences and ‘banter’.
Lisa Patmore, employment partner at Dorsey & Whitney, warned that many employees were now shaping their schedules according to the football schedule rather than by their normal working hours. She said that although England’s match with Croatia started at a “relatively civilised” 9pm, the celebrations after the match including the liberal consumption of alcohol will have caused problems the following morning.
World Cup 2026: resources for employersFIFA World Cup 2026: has HR gone in studs up?
FIFA World Cup 2026: Employers’ guide to workplace implications
Workplace sweepstakes – keeping it legal in the age of hybrid working
She referred to the matches being a “difficult mix for employers – particularly where absence or lateness affects productivity, service delivery or colleagues who are left to pick up the slack” and added that employers also needed to factor in recent changes to statutory sick pay, which mean workers are entitled to SSP from day one of absence, “which may have previously been a deterrent to missing work”.
Patmore advised employers to communicate expectations clearly and avoid knee-jerk reactions if someone calls in sick after a match, even where their social media showed they’d been posting all night.
“Employers must treat any reported sickness as genuine unless there is evidence to suggest otherwise. Failing to do so may risk claims for unfair dismissal or discrimination,” she said.
“What’s more, in the age of social media, lines are increasingly blurred. Sickness after a busy night of posting may look suspicious and could give an employer grounds to ask questions, but it’s not a free pass to take disciplinary action. Posts need to be considered in context: timestamps aren’t always watertight and snooping on private accounts can raise its own privacy issues – potentially backfiring on the employer.”
The difficulty with workplace banter today is that we can have five generations working together, all with different views on what is and isn’t acceptable humour” – Stephanie Davies, Laughology
For Stephanie Davies, CEO of L&D company Laughology, football banter was a source of some workplace issues. She referred to research commissioned by her firm that found over half of UK workers say workplace banter feels riskier now than it used to and more than four in 10 employees feel football banter at work is riskier. Davies, a behaviour psychologist, said that rather than letting disappointment or dodgy jokes cause tension, employers should embrace how football gives workplaces a “brilliant opportunity to create laughter, connection and perspective”.
She said: “The difficulty with workplace banter today is that we can have five generations working together, all with different views on what is and isn’t acceptable humour. That doesn’t mean we should immediately call people out and berate them when something goes wrong. Instead, we should ‘call people in’ by helping them understand why something might now be considered offensive. It’s also important to remember that workplace rules have changed. Even if two people are comfortable with a particular joke, someone who overhears it may be offended and can raise a complaint, making it the organisation’s responsibility to address.”
She referred to a firm that had received a complaint from an employee who overheard a colleague referring to supporters of the team he supported as “manky-mob and knuckledraggers”. Another had “manky-mob” shouted at him when he walked in to a room. Both terms are used by Celtic and Rangers fans and were seen as highly offensive, she said, because of the intense political and religious tensions between the clubs. Davies said she had also worked with a client where an employee took offence when colleagues supporting a rival team sent them jokey football memes.
Davies added: “I’m a huge advocate of humour because it is the social glue that brings people together. However, there are some clear rules. If someone asks you to stop, you need to stop immediately and understand why it caused offence. If you carry on, it’s no longer banter, it’s bullying. The same applies if the humour involves punching down, exploiting a power imbalance, targeting a protected characteristic or focusing on an individual’s personal traits.”
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more human resources jobs
The post World Cup: Absence and ‘banter’ management on HR radar appeared first on Personnel Today.
Major changes in how C-suite roles are structured are needed in response to the rise of AI, the chief executive of Accenture UK and Ireland has said, with HR directors taking the lead.
Matt Prebble said HR directors will have to take responsibility for managing AI agents alongside human staff in future. He told the Financial Times: “When you consider running the organisation of the future, you’re going to think about how do I set up the organisation so that I’m managing people, but also agents and AI and technology?”
Integrating AI agents required careful management, he added.
“For the small number of clients that have managed to get an authentic agentic AI working in their organisation … you have to onboard agents, you have to train the agents … that could be the HR director’s job.”
AI and jobs‘The spotlight on AI skills risks creating an illusion of progress’
Surge in AI skills interest to continue in 2025
Employers pay 14% wage premium for AI skills
Prebble said AI was prompting boards to reconsider how to reshape their workforces. “We’re on the early part of that journey to understand how does the organisation structure of leadership really change,” he said.
He added: “As AI takes on more execution, the COO role is evolving, for example”, he said, with “operational leaders increasingly accountable for AI-driven outcomes”.
To mirror the way its clients operate and buy services, Accenture itself has shifted away from its traditional division between consulting, technology and other business lines towards broader “reinvention” projects.
Accenture has seen its market value and share price fall sharply, partly because of uncertainty over whether AI would replace many of the tasks carried out by its 786,000-person workforce and force it to slash prices.
Prebble rejected suggestions that Accenture was particularly exposed to the problem because of its large number of junior staff or that it had not done enough to address the threat. He emphasised that Accenture planned to increase UK graduate recruitment by 40% next year.
There is lots of shadow AI use where people are using AI to improve their individual effectiveness” – Ben White, On Track International
“This perception that you don’t need the bottom of the pyramid, you don’t need the next generation coming through, is misplaced. That’s based on a narrow view of productivity,” he said.
Ben White, executive consultant at learning and development firm OnTrack International, in response to Prebble’s comments, said most organisations were still struggling at basic AI adoption. “There is lots of shadow AI use where people are using AI to improve their individual effectiveness,” he said.
“But building and working alongside AI as a company, function or team is some way off. This comes down to people’s work identity being challenged. What value do I or will I add? Using AI may give people back more time to connect but what if people’s work identity is not about connecting but doing a task and going home?”
He added: “One of the reasons that AI adoption and integration has failed to date is that it is seen an ‘IT thing’ or it’s to do with skills and knowledge, so it must be HR or L&D. AI is different. I like the idea of the augmented worker where their abilities are enhanced by AI within the controlled environment of the workplace and we are all on similar journeys.”
White said the EU’s AI Act would push firms to show that employees had AI literacy. “This will not be solved by the usual e-learning package that people just click through and take a test at the end as a tick box,” he said. “This also has to be role specific. Different roles will have different learner journeys and different use cases.”
Meanwhile, research from recruiter Robert Walters and payments platform Native Teams has suggested demand for AI professionals in the UK could reach almost 300,000 by 2028, against an estimated domestic supply of just 137,000.
L&D job opportunities on Personnel Today
The post Accenture: HR must take the lead on AI agents appeared first on Personnel Today.
Businesses continue to be more cautious in recruiting new staff as official labour market figures continue to show a falling number of vacancies.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that early job vacancy estimates for March to May suggest a decrease of 19,000 (2.6%) vacancies to 707,000, compared with December to February. This is the lowest level since February to April 2021.
While the unemployment rate fell from 5.2% to 4.9% over the latest three months, the employment rate also decreased slightly from 75.1% to 75%.
Ben Harrison, director of the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, said today’s statistics show the labour market remains in a precarious position.
“While unemployment may have fallen slightly from last month to 4.9%, 124,000 more people are out of work relative to last year. More than two-thirds of this increase has been driven by young people aged 18 to 24, while youth unemployment remains well above the level seen for much of this century.
Labour market trendsSkills gaps could leave half of AI roles unfilled by 2028
Alan Milburn: Employers should prioritise new starters
Young people’s confidence in job market at record low
“At the same time, opportunities to gain a foothold in the labour market have declined. Recent Work Foundation analysis of Adzuna data found that the number of ‘starter’ jobs available to first-time entrants has fallen by 49% over the last decade.”
“And while overall vacancies have declined to their lowest level since 2021 at 707,000. This is particularly bad news for young jobseekers who are facing an increasingly sparse and challenging jobs market. While total vacancies have fallen in recent years, the decline in starter jobs has been 1.6 times faster than for other jobs in the last 12 months.”
Average annual growth in regular earnings (excluding bonuses) was 3.4% and 4.4% for total earnings (including bonuses).
Annual average regular earnings growth was 5.1% for the public sector and 2.9% for the private sector. Public sector pay growth is affected by the timing of pay awards varying this year.
Liz McKeown, ONS director of economic statistics, said regular wage growth in the private sector was rising at its lowest rate in five and a half years.
The figures come after yesterday’s inflation figures showed that the consumer prices index (CPI) in May stood at 2.8%, while CPI including owner-occupier housing costs (CPIH) was 3.0% – both unchanged on the previous month.
The retail prices index (RPI), the inflation measure cited by trade unions, ticked up slightly to 3.1%, up from 3.0% in April.
Andrew Crawford, senior vice-president at LHH UK and Ireland, said: “Today’s labour market figures show the reality of rising employment costs and the national insurance contributions hike. Despite growth at the beginning of the year, the current economic climate is forcing many employers to freeze hiring, negatively impacting the UK’s job market.
“The impact is being felt as more workers are staying in roles, with 51% are worried about being made redundant by their current employer. This uncertainty is likely set to continue for a time as nine in 10 UK businesses have made or are planning to make redundancies this year, with AI and automation being the top driver of layoffs for the first time.”
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s director of campaigns Shazia Ejaz said: “Much of the job market is on standby mode as employers wait for clearer signals while geopolitical tensions unfold. Global pressures and domestic political uncertainty are making employers hesitant to commit to hiring although latest REC data shows temp hiring is faring better than permanent.
“While employment and unemployment levels remain broadly steady in today’s data, this is a difficult labour market for jobseekers. Vacancies are falling across most sectors and workforce jobs are declining across many regions, showing demand for staff is easing.”
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “While Donald Trump has declared an end to his illegal war in Iran, the economic shockwaves he unleashed are only beginning to ripple through to the labour market – and young people are among the most at risk.
“Improvements in the jobs market from the start of the year have offered workers and businesses some protection, but today’s figures suggest challenging months are ahead. Falling vacancies and stagnant real wages mean jobs and living standards are at further risk.
“We must do more to address youth unemployment. The government’s jobs guarantee is an important start, but far more places are needed, and young people shouldn’t have to be stuck out of work for a year and a half before they can benefit.
”The sheer number of young people not in employment, education, or training should be front of mind when the Bank of England meets today. It’s time to cut interest rates to boost investment and strengthen the economy.“
HR business partner opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more HR business partner jobs
The post New hires fall to lowest level since 2021 appeared first on Personnel Today.
