Britain Risks 1980s-Style Jobs Meltdown, Recruiter Warns
Britain could be heading towards a 1980s-style employment crisis under Labour, as rising taxes and a sustained slump in hiring threaten to crush job opportunities, one of the country’s leading recruiters has warned.
James Reed, founder and chairman of recruitment group Reed, said the UK is experiencing the most prolonged downturn in vacancies he has seen in nearly 50 years.
“Official figures show we have now had declining vacancies in the economy for three years – something I have never seen in my 49-year career,” Reed told reporters.
“I am concerned that what we are seeing is partly structural, and that we may be facing a hollowing out of jobs in the same way that we did in the 1980s, except for white-collar rather than blue-collar workers.”
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of job vacancies has fallen from a peak of 1.3 million in 2022 to just 728,000 in the three months to August – the lowest level in more than a decade outside the Covid lockdown period.
Reed highlighted steep drops in hiring across accounting, legal, and IT roles, with graduate opportunities particularly hard hit – vacancies down by two-thirds since 2022. By contrast, demand remains stronger in healthcare, social care, and hospitality, sectors that are less vulnerable to automation by artificial intelligence (AI).
“It will have a big impact on what you might call the graduate class, people who would typically go to university and expect to get a job in some of those areas that are being affected,” Reed said, warning of a “severe jobs drought.”
“That raises a lot of questions around what work people will do in future and what opportunities will be available to young people especially.”
The warning echoes concerns that the labour market is undergoing deep structural changes, with technology and fiscal policy combining to reshape the nature of work.
