To ask His Majesty's Government, further to recent figures released by the Office for National Statistics on 13 February, what steps they are taking to address factors contributing to the recent slowing down of job vacancies and employment growth.
Answered on
27 February 2024
At the Autumn Statement, the government announced a new Back to Work Plan worth over £2.5 billion to expand employment support for the long-term sick and disabled, and the long-term unemployed. These groups face some of the biggest barriers to entering the labour market, and the government is committed to helping them look for and stay in work, if they are able. The Back to Work Plan builds on the landmark £7 billion employment package from Spring Budget 2023. The OBR judge that the combined impacts of the Spring Budget 2023 and Autumn Statement 2023 policy measures will increase the number of people in employment by around 200,000, permanently increasing the size of the economy.
More broadly, a growing economy gives businesses the confidence to invest and hire, creating opportunities for better-paid jobs and to spread opportunity across the country. The government is delivering long-term growth with ambitious policies at successive fiscal events, including making full expensing permanent, a tax cut to companies of over £10bn a year. According to the OBR, the combined impact of Autumn Statement and Spring Budget policies in 2023 are expected to permanently increase the size of the economy by 0.5% by the end of the forecast. Other forecasters, including the Bank of England and the IMF, agree that growth in the UK will strengthen over the next few years.