{"id":498827,"date":"2026-03-27T19:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T19:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/498827\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T19:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T19:56:09","slug":"rachel-reeves-under-pressure-as-uk-firms-prepare-for-unfortunate-record-year-for-redundancies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/498827\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Reeves under pressure as UK firms prepare for ‘unfortunate record year for redundancies’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britain\u2019s jobs market has worsened sharply, with 2025 seeing the highest number of redundancy warnings since the Covid pandemic in 2020.<\/p>\n

Around 315,605 jobs were at risk last year, with payouts totalling \u00a3477,709,323, new figures have shown.<\/p>\n

UK businesses are facing mounting pressure as rising costs, weaker demand and ongoing economic uncertainty take their toll. Figures from the Insolvency Service, obtained through a Freedom of Information request by Liquidation Centre, highlight the growing strain.<\/p>\n

By the end of 2025, unemployment had climbed to 5.2 per cent, the highest level in almost five years, as more employers cut jobs or faced the risk of collapse.<\/p>\n

The start of 2026 has offered little relief as between January and February, 736 employers submitted redundancy proposals, putting 56,396 jobs at risk – an increase of nearly nine per cent compared with the same period last year, when 51,905 roles were under threat.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most alarming is the parallel with Britain’s last major economic downturn.<\/p>\n

February 2026 saw 430 HR1 advance notice forms filed with authorities, virtually matching the 433 submissions recorded in February 2009, just months before the recession reached its peak.<\/p>\n

Since redundancy notifications are typically lodged weeks or months ahead of actual dismissals, the elevated warning levels from 2025 are expected to continue feeding through into job losses this year.<\/p>\n

\"Rachel<\/p>\n

Rachel Reeves is being urged to consider more support for businesses<\/p>\n

| POOL<\/p>\n

Liquidation Centre’s analysis of historical trends projects that 2026 could witness approximately 327,227 redundancies\u2014some 11,622 more positions eliminated than the previous year. <\/p>\n

This represents a 3.7 per cent rise, though notably less steep than the 18.1 per cent surge experienced between 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

The cumulative toll on British workers has been substantial. Over the six-year span from 2020 to 2025, more than two million redundancy warnings were issued, totalling 2,087,709 notifications. Job losses increased by 45 per cent between 2021 and 2025.<\/p>\n

\"JobThe number of unemployed people per job vacancy is at a new post-pandemic high | GB NEWS<\/p>\n

Multiple factors are converging to squeeze employers: heightened operating costs, wage pressures, increased taxation including higher employer National Insurance contributions, and broader economic uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Richard Hunt, Director at Liquidation Centre, attributes the crisis to fundamental shifts in how businesses operate rather than a single catastrophic event.<\/p>\n

“Redundancies are happening at a rapid pace in the UK as the economy continues to change and industries adapt, including automation and AI,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Unlike in 2020, when redundancies were largely driven by a single crisis, the rise in redundancy warnings in 2025 appears to reflect more ongoing pressures on employers.”<\/p>\n

Mr Hunt warned that 2026 is “already shaping up to be an unfortunate record year for redundancies,” citing intensified competition, living costs, taxation, and wage inflation as primary drivers.<\/p>\n

Global political instability compounds domestic challenges, he added, with disrupted trade routes, supply chain problems, and deteriorating business confidence placing additional strain on companies across the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s jobs market has worsened sharply, with 2025 seeing the highest number of redundancy warnings since the Covid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,2222,229,1445,2331,56,44208,54,55],"class_list":["post-498827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-money","tag-politics","tag-rachel-reeves","tag-sgg","tag-uk","tag-uk-politics","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}