{"id":883170,"date":"2026-10-15T12:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T12:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/883170\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T12:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T12:48:11","slug":"hiring-confidence-slumps-amid-rising-employment-costs-survey-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/883170\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiring confidence slumps amid rising employment costs, survey finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Increasing employment costs and regulation are making UK businesses increasingly cautious about hiring, research has found.<\/p>\n

Less than one in six (15 per cent) of businesses are hiring \u2018confidently\u2019, a steep drop from 24 per cent last year, according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and Pertemps Employment Trends Survey 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of the 682 businesses polled, 73 per cent cited labour costs as their biggest threat to their ability to compete, amid a hike in employer national insurance contributions and a projected 3.7 per cent rise in the national living wage to \u00a313.18 an hour in April 2027.<\/p>\n

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Employment regulation was also a major concern (72 per cent), with four in five businesses warning that the government\u2019s Make Work Pay reforms<\/a>, which aim to strengthen employment rights, improve job security and tackle low pay, were unaffordable without harming growth, jobs or investment.<\/p>\n

Rain Newton-Smith, chief executive of the CBI, described the findings as a \u201cclear signal\u201d that employment costs and hiring confidence needed to be addressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigher employment costs and growing regulatory pressures are making firms more cautious about hiring and investment,\u201d she said. \u201cThat matters not just for businesses, but for living standards and particularly for young people trying to get their first foot on the career ladder.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, she claimed the situation was \u201cnot irreversible\u201d, urging the government to use the autumn budget to reduce employment costs and give businesses more \u201cheadroom\u201d to invest in people and create jobs.<\/p>\n

Young jobseekers face growing barriers<\/p>\n

In the research, 44 per cent of businesses said rising recruitment and onboarding costs were pushing them to favour more experienced candidates.<\/p>\n

This follows recent People Management reporting on Open University figures<\/a> revealing that 37 per cent of young people classified as NEET felt employers demanded experience they lacked.<\/p>\n

Georgina Kvassay, interview coach and trainer at Interview for Success, warned that prioritising experience could mean overlooking candidates with greater potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone who has done a similar job for 10 years isn\u2019t necessarily going to perform better than someone with less experience but the right aptitude and transferable skills,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

However, CBI\/Pertemps found a preference for experienced candidates was not the only barrier, as almost half (45 per cent) of businesses admitted they did not have enough demand to justify creating more entry-level jobs.<\/p>\n

Emma Cromarty, director at consultancy EC Human Resources, said employers risked creating future skills shortages by reducing opportunities for inexperienced workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cLonger term, if fewer businesses invest in entry-level talent now, we\u2019re storing up a widespread skills shortage across industry in the years ahead,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

Opportunities for young people to gain experience are also limited by financial pressures, with 53 per cent of businesses offering fewer apprenticeships than they wanted and 35 per cent reporting cuts to training budgets.<\/p>\n

Kvassay warned that employers were overlooking the \u201clonger-term cost of not developing talent\u201d, adding that cuts to early-career recruitment could create skills shortages that would be \u201cfar more expensive to address in the future\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prioritising opportunities for younger workers<\/p>\n

With rising costs forcing employers to make difficult recruitment decisions, Cromarty urged HR teams to protect entry-level opportunities rather than abandon them altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cRingfence a small, consistent intake each year, link roles to future skills gaps and reduce cost and risk through structured onboarding and buddying so new starters become productive quickly,\u201d she advised.<\/p>\n

She also recommended developing local partnerships to reduce recruitment costs.<\/p>\n

Kvassay suggested HR challenge unnecessary experience requirements and ensure managers assess candidates\u2019 potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetter recruitment decisions can reduce costly hiring mistakes while widening the talent pool,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She recommended consistent, evidence-based assessments that considered motivation, learning agility and transferable skills, supported by mentoring, regular feedback and clear expectations for new starters.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, businesses can\u2019t expect to recruit fully developed talent indefinitely if no one is prepared to develop it,\u201d said Kvassay. \u201cHR has an opportunity to champion an approach that balances today\u2019s commercial pressures with the workforce needs of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

For further guidance, read the CIPD\u2019s research on how employers are managing rising costs amid weak hiring confidence<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Increasing employment costs and regulation are making UK businesses increasingly cautious about hiring, research has found. Less than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[28,134],"class_list":["post-883170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jobs","tag-business","tag-jobs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}