Hospitality hit hard as job losses escalate

By Jaq Bayles

Published: 18 July, 2025

With the latest ONS labour market figures showing the number of payrolled employees in hospitality down from 2,111,898 in April to 2,100,827 in May, UK Hospitality is calling for urgent government action.

The organisation said hospitality has been the hardest hit sector since the Budget, accounting for nearly half (45%) of all job losses.

UK Hospitality chair Kate Nicholls said: “These devastating job losses are a direct consequence of policy decisions at last year’s Budget, which have disproportionately hit the hospitality sector.

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“The change to employer NICs in particular was socially regressive and had a disproportionate impact on entry-level jobs. Without a change of tack from the government we could be looking at even more job losses in hospitality, when we should be bringing people into the jobs market.

“We desperately need to see action at the upcoming Budget. We urge the government to act on our asks to fix NICs by extending the existing exemptions to include both young people and people moving from welfare to work, which will boost jobs and help to reverse this huge loss.”

The ONS figures also showed that vacancies in hospitality continued declining, down from 82,000 in the three months to April 2025 to 79,000 in the three months to May 2025, dropping 19% year on year.

Saxon Moseley, partner and head of leisure and hospitality at audit, tax and consulting firm RSM UK, said: “While the reduction in hospitality staff appears to be part of a longer-term trend, this has been accelerated due to the recent rises in employment costs.

“Some operators have reached their limit in passing on costs to customers and so have turned to reducing headcount to mitigate their expenses and preserve margins, which risks denting the customer experience. The hope is that the government revisits the National Insurance increase in the Autumn Budget to offer the sector some form of relief.

“Uncertainty around immigration policy means there are growing concerns in the industry surrounding skilled visas and access to chefs. The sector relies heavily on overseas workers, so an inability to get hold of the right staff will only exacerbate workforce issues further.”

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