Higher employment costs lead employers to cut back recruitment plans
Rising employment costs are increasingly causing UK employers to seek to scale back recruitment or recruit workers on flexible contracts, according to findings from the British Chambers of Commerce.
The BCC’s Workforce Survey 2017, published late last week, finds that four in five businesses are facing mounting employment costs due to a combination of pensions auto-enrolment, the National Living Wage and the Apprenticeship Levy.
When asked about the ways businesses plan to respond to these rising costs, 20% plan to scale back recruitment, up from 16% in last year’s survey; 11% will seek to recruit workers aged under 25 or apprentices, up from 9% last year; and 15% plan on recruiting workers on flexible contracts, up from 6% in 2016’s survey.
