Today Marks & Spencer chief executive Stuart Machin has called on the government to take “immediate action” and “lighten the burden that the Budget loaded on to the retail sector.” Retail is one of the sectors likely to be worst affected by NIC raid as it employers hundreds of thousands of relatively low paid and part-time workers.
The impact of Rachel Reeves’s Budget tax raid on businesses was revealed today by two surveys showing a sharp slowdown in recruitment ahead of higher national insurance contribution rates kicking in for employers.
Jon Holt, KPMG’s group chief executive and UK senior partner KPMG, said: “Businesses continue to hold back on recruitment, leading to permanent and temporary placements falling steeply again in January.
A panel of employers consulted by KPMG and REC “reported unease amongst firms to hire staff, linked to economic uncertainty and the government’s changes to national insurance and employment rights legislation.”.
Andrew Griffith, the shadow business and trade secretary, said: “The Conservatives warned that Labour’s national insurance jobs tax and economic mismanagement would kill growth stone dead, putting countless jobs at risk.
