UK hiring on the rise as confidence lifts, research suggests
Companies have ramped up hiring in recent weeks while consumer confidence has started to rise, research suggests, in a boost for Rachel Reeves as the government looks for signs of economic growth.The chancellor has received a fillip after the market research company GfK’s consumer index improved from -22 in January to -20 in February as households said they were more optimistic about their personal finances and the economic outlook.A separate survey of employers by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) found that companies had increased hiring in January for the first time since last June.The studies are in contrast to recent official figures and gloomy reports from business groups that showed the job market worsening.Businesses have complained that increases in employers’ national insurance and the national minimum wage – due in April – together with planned improvements to workers’ employment rights have forced many firms and charities to consider layoffs and hiring freezes.
The GfK and REC reports reveal a lift in the mood, though analysts remain divided about how much the economy will grow amid global uncertainty and the threat from Donald Trump of trade tariffs on UK exports to the US.The Bank of England has said that strong pay growth, even as inflation increases, will improve household spending power and put the consumer in the economic driving seat this year.Neil Bellamy, the consumer insights director at NIQ GfK, said there was a contrast between January, when the five main measures of consumer confidence were all down, and February when they all increased.Consumers were feeling better about their personal finances, in part because a cut to interest rates by the Bank to 4.5% this month has “brightened the mood for some people”, Bellamy said.
Since the pandemic began in early 2020, the index has risen as high as -7 in July 2021, and dropped as low as -49 in September 2022.The last time the index was positive was in 2016.Bellamy added that the index was still low while “the majority of consumers continued to wrestle with the impact of higher prices following more than two years of high inflation”.“Prices are still rising above the Bank of England’s target and gas and electricity bills remain a challenge for many households,” he added.Bellamy said that “people don’t expect the economy to show any dramatic signs of improvement soon”.
Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionThe GfK figures contrasted with a separate survey from the British Retail Consortium and Opinium this week that showed confidence among UK consumers has dropped sharply since last summer,The REC, a lobby group for recruiters, said its survey of businesses found that the number of job postings in January was 1,516,535 – an increase of 7,2% on the previous month,Marking the first rise in job postings since June 2024, the REC said every region in the UK benefited, with the largest increase in the East Midlands (11,7%) and the smallest in London (3.
4%),More encouraging for the government, the number of new job postings was 738,040, up 34,4% on a sluggish reading in December and better than the 27,9% increase in January 2024,The group’s deputy chief executive, Kate Shoesmith, said that while there were “tough conversations going on in boardrooms across the country” about the extra costs from inflation and higher taxes, “today’s report suggests it is too soon for gloom about the UK economy’s prospects overall for 2025”.
“The increase in job postings is a clear sign that employers will hire when they need to,A 34,4% increase in new jobs signals a solid rebound in demand, showing that businesses remain resilient, despite both domestic and international headwinds,” she added,
Oil workers ‘could strike’ to protect jobs in green transition; Trump tariffs hit US economic growth – as it happened
Oil workers and tanker drivers could take strike action in an effort to force UK and Scottish ministers to protect jobs threatened by the green transition, Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary has predicted.Graham told trade union activists based at PetroIneos’s Grangemouth oil refinery near Edinburgh, which is set to close over the next 18 months with the loss of 400 jobs, that direct action was being considered.Speaking outside Scottish Labour’s annual conference in Glasgow, she suggested Unite members could target petrol and diesel production, throttling fuel supplies to forecourts, our Scotland editor Severin Carrell writes.Graham told the rally:“Puts these politicians on notice, we are not going to allow oil and gas workers to be the coal miners of our generation. I have already been meeting with refinery reps up and down the countries in Britain, and we will escalate this action if necessary
A prize worth pursuing: has Elizabeth line shown what rail investment can achieve?
Halfway to a billion journeys, and it’s only just begun. Amid the recent gloom, struggles and doubts besetting Britain’s railway there is a bright beacon of hope: the Elizabeth line.Now accounting for one in seven national rail journeys, the east-west cross-London railway has smashed forecasts and remoulded the travel habits and urban geography of the south-east.So far, so good for the lucky Londoners upgraded from the tube to a far quicker, cleaner and quieter ride. But beyond, with the north of England still waiting for promised better railways, and a chancellor beating the drum for infrastructure investment, the line serves to demonstrate that the nation can indeed still build things, and that the people will absolutely come
How poignant to see loved ones frozen in time on Google Street View | Letters
All the overwhelming opposing emotions that Adrian Chiles went through happened to me too when I casually looked at our street on Google Maps (My dad died a year ago – and a photo of him on Google Street View brought me up short, 19 February). There was the palliative care nurse at our front door waiting to be let in, standing by our small red car. My husband had terminal cancer and this amazing nurse was incredibly supportive to all of us. The car was his little runaround while he was still able to drive. The picture must have been taken in 2017, not long before he died
Quantum computing is already here, sort of | Brief letters
Your article (Microsoft unveils chip it says could bring quantum computing within years, 19 February) said that this new class of computers, unlike current machines, will be “based on quantum mechanics rather than classical physics”. While the Babbage machines might be described as using classical physics, I firmly believe there are elements of quantum physics involved in the tablet on which I am writing this.Prof Stephen HollowayLiverpool Even better than Clare Finney’s suggestions (‘The classiest gift I’ve heard of’: what to bring to a dinner party (that isn’t wine or chocolates), 19 February), I think, is to arrange for flowers to be delivered two days earlier so the host has time to arrange them before the day of the dinner party. Arriving with a bunch clutched in your hot little hand and giving the host yet another task is not classy at all.Heather ParryWatford, Hertfordshire It isn’t going to bed that is the problem, Emma Beddington (Why is it so hard to go to bed? Maybe science has the answer, 16 February), but getting up in the mornings – any ideas?Carolyn MartinMawnan Smith, Cornwall Given that the KGB ceased to exist in 1991, it is a testament to its resourcefulness that one of its agents targeted a Tory MP in 2022 (Report, 20 February)
WTA urges social media companies to do more after Raducanu’s Dubai ordeal
A leading tennis official has called on social media companies to step up protection for female athletes after an incident involving Emma Raducanu in Dubai shone a spotlight on the stalking of leading players.Raducanu, 22, was reduced to tears during a match on Tuesday night, after spotting a man in the crowd who had “exhibited fixated behaviour” when he approached her with a note the previous day. The man was briefly detained by police, signed a formal undertaking to stay away from Raducanu and has been banned from future tournaments, but the player’s ordeal raised questions about women’s safety in tennis.A number of high-profile female players including her fellow Briton Katie Boulter and the American Coco Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion, have recently outlined experiences of stalking and obsessive “fan” behaviour while the image of Raducanu hiding behind the umpire’s chair in Dubai was enough to spark memories of tennis’s darkest episode: the stabbing of 19-year-old Monica Seles in Hamburg in 1993.The tournament provided extra security for Raducanu in Dubai and various safeguarding measures are in place to protect players, but the Women’s Tennis Association’s director of safeguarding, Lindsay Brandon, said social media companies needed to crack down on threatening online behaviour, calling it the “missing piece” needed to further bolster athlete safety
Time is running out for England's and Scotland’s Lions hopefuls to state their case | Ugo Monye
For British & Irish Lions hopefuls, time is running out. Three Test matches left to stake their claim, to catch Andy Farrell’s eye and book a place on the plane. Farrell is due to be at Twickenham on Saturday and he will be analysing everything. As a player that’s precisely where you want to be.At this stage of the Six Nations, England against Scotland feels all the more pivotal for Lions hopefuls
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