Employment statistics released by the Office for National Statistics today show businesses shedding jobs at a faster rate following the Government’s National Insurance hike. The data shows:
- 274,000 fewer payrolled employees over the last 12 months, a 0.9% decline
- Monthly job losses worsened from 0.2% in April to 0.4% in May 2025
- Employment fell by 109,000 people between April and May 2025
- The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% from 4.5%, reaching the highest level since July 2021
- Average wage growth, excluding bonuses, stood at 5.2% in the three months to April, down from 5.5% the previous month
Responding to the data, Daniel Herring, Head of Fiscal and Economic Policy at the Centre for Policy Studies, said:
‘Today’s provisional employment data seems to confirm our worst fears about Labour’s jobs tax. When you make it 11% more expensive to hire minimum wage workers, businesses simply stop hiring.
‘The CPS warned that this Government’s National Insurance hike would destroy jobs, and these early figures suggest we were right. Payrolled employment appears to have fallen by 274,000 over the last year, with unemployment rising to its highest rate since 2021. Labour promised to help working people, but they risk destroying jobs instead.’
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
- Daniel Herring is Head of Fiscal and Economic Policy at the Centre for Policy Studies
- ‘Punching Down: How Labour’s jobs tax hits the lowest-paid the most’ is available to download here
- For further information and media requests, please contact Melisa Tourt on 07399 251110 and [email protected]
- The Centre for Policy Studies is one of the oldest and most influential think tanks in Westminster. With a focus on taxation, economic growth, housing, immigration, and energy abundance, its goal is to develop policies that widen enterprise, ownership and opportunity.
Date Added: Tuesday 10th June 2025
