![\"Government](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/london-england-british-prime-minister-keir-starmer-reacts-as-he-meets-with-defence-secretary-6977428.jpeg\" "\\"Government")
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Retail leaders say rising employment costs are making it harder to create entry-level jobs (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s biggest supermarket<\/a> chains have joined more than 80 retail leaders in urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer<\/a> to take urgent action on youth unemployment, warning that rising costs and new employment regulations risk shutting young people out of the workforce.<\/p>\n The bosses of Tesco<\/a>, Sainsbury\u2019s<\/a>, Morrisons<\/a> and Asda<\/a> are among the signatories of a letter sent to Downing Street by the British Retail Consortium, which argued that retail remains one of the most important entry points into employment for young people. Retailers warned that the sector\u2019s ability to offer first jobs and career opportunities is under increasing pressure, describing the \u201cladder of opportunity\u201d for young workers as \u201cwobbling\u201d.<\/p>\n Retail sector says youth \u2018Ladder of opportunity\u2019 is wobbling (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n \u201cRetail has always been where any young person can start with few qualifications, limited experience and build a lasting career,\u201d the letter states. \u201c<\/p>\n Many of us started on the shop floor, and it remains central to how our businesses grow and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n The intervention comes at a time when youth unemployment has reached its highest level in more than a decade and job vacancies have fallen sharply across the UK economy.<\/p>\n Supermarkets are among the country\u2019s largest private-sector employers, with grocery stores providing thousands of entry-level roles each year in stores, distribution centres and management training programmes.<\/p>\n Industry leaders say these opportunities are becoming harder to create as employment costs continue to rise.<\/p>\n The BRC said it is now \u201cmore expensive than ever\u201d to recruit young workers and warned that changes introduced through the Employment Rights Act are making workforce management more complicated.<\/p>\n Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said ministers must avoid policies that increase the cost of creating jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe message from retail is clear: if government is serious about tackling youth unemployment, it cannot keep making it more expensive to create jobs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Retailers have also stepped up criticism of Labour\u2019s increase in employer National Insurance contributions and proposals to reform age-based wage structures, arguing the measures could discourage entry-level hiring and limit career progression.<\/p>\n The letter follows a recent report by former Health Secretary Alan Milburn, which warned that as many as 1.25 million people aged 16 to 24 could be out of education, employment or training by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n A government spokesperson said: \u201cWe are already working in partnership with businesses to tackle youth unemployment and create 50,000 more opportunities for young people as part of our \u00a32.5bn youth employment support package.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom this month, we\u2019re rolling out \u00a33,000 payments, covering wages for six months for those out of work long-term, and cutting hiring costs for under\u201121s and apprentices.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retail leaders say rising employment costs are making it harder to create entry-level jobs (Image: Getty) Britain\u2019s biggest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,2195,59,727,725,723,56,54,55,8507],"class_list":["post-636071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-employment","tag-gb","tag-morrisons","tag-sainsburys","tag-tesco","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-youth-unemployment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636071","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=636071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Groceries](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/groceries-on-check-out-counter-6977457.jpg\" "\\"Groceries")
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