Companies in the U.K. are cutting jobs at the fastest pace since January 2021 in yet another sign of slowing growth in the aftermath of the Labour government’s first budget.
The S&P Global flash UK purchasing managers’ employment index fell to 45.8 in December, down from 48.9 the month before. The latest reading is the third consecutive month the index has declined. A reading above 50 indicates growth, while below that level signals a contraction.
The fall in employment was the sharpest since the global financial crisis in 2009, if the pandemic period is excluded.
“Firms are responding to the increase in National Insurance contributions and new regulations around staffing with a marked pull-back in hiring,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence said in a statement.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled £40 billion ($51 billion) in tax rises in her first budget after the Labour Party swept to power in July’s general election. Employers were hit with an increase to the National Insurance (NI) payroll tax while also paying higher minimum wages.
Reeves contends that the government is compelled to raise money to stabilize public finances and fix public services, whereas business leaders have repeatedly warned that the new measures will force them to cut jobs and raise prices.
S&P Global said its composite PMI held steady at 50.5 in December, signaling a “largely stalled economy.”
“Economic growth momentum has been lost since the robust expansion seen earlier in the year, as businesses and households have responded negatively to the new Labour government’s downbeat rhetoric and policies,” Williamson said.
S&P Global also said average prices charged for goods rose at their steepest rate since March, as companies passed the higher costs of doing business on to their customers.
In early December, the Bank of England had reported that more than half of the companies it had surveyed had indicated that they planned to cut jobs and hike prices in response to the government’s budget.
The survey showed that 54% of the respondents were expecting to raise prices and the same proportion said they would lower their headcounts, while 38% expect to pay lower salaries than they otherwise would have done.
Earlier, the British billionaire James Dyson had slammed the budget by describing it as “an egregious act of self-harm” on the economy.
The magnate behind electronics giant Dyson accused Labour of failing to understand the fundamental importance of the private sector in driving economic growth.
“No business can survive Reeves’s 20% tax grab. It will be the death of entrepreneurship,” Dyson wrote in a letter to The Telegraph.