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Over half of all job losses since Budget in hospitality

Of the 164,641 jobs lost since then, close to 89,000 have been in the industry. This stark figure represents 53% of all job losses in the UK since the Budget.

The changes to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) announced in the Autumn Budget, which came into effect on 6 April this year, were predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to directly cause only 50,000 job losses. The scale of the policy’s impact has far exceeded the OBR’s own predictions, however.

• Read more: Klearhos Kanellakis – ‘Looking Back, Forging Ahead’

Digging further into the data, one-in-25 jobs in hospitality have disappeared since the Budget, with the rate of job losses in the sector seven times higher than that of the wider UK economy.

Chair of UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls, believes the ONS stats are a reflection of what many in the sector have already been feeling.

She said: “The number of job losses suffered in hospitality since the Budget is staggering.

“More than half of all job losses since October occurring in hospitality is further evidence that our sector has been by far the hardest hit by the Government’s regressive tax increases.

“The sheer scale of costs being placed upon hospitality has forced businesses to take agonisingly tough decisions to cut jobs – with part-time and flexible roles often those most at risk.

“At a time when the country needs jobs, the Government should be encouraging hospitality to grow and create jobs, not tax them out of existence.

“The Government needs to recognise the devastating impact of its tax increases on working people and communities across the country. It should take action at the Budget to reverse this damage by lowering business rates, fixing NICs and cutting VAT.”

• On-Trade
• hospitality
• ONS
• uk hospitality
• job losses
• NICs