Hospitality and retail sectors have seen the largest declines in employment and among the fastest pay growth, pointing to the combined impacts of the rise in employers’ national insurance increases and increases to the National Living Wage.

Latest labour market stats: The labour market continues to cool as employers respond to cost pressures and global uncertainty. Payroll numbers are falling, pay growth is slowing and vacancies are now well below pre-pandemic levels, as employers cut back hiring.

Early start this morning to host a day of discussions with key stakeholders in West Midlands on the local Get Britain Working plan #GetWestMidlandsWorking

Great to be at Communities that Work parliamentary reception last night w/ @allymcgovern.bsky.social, where JobsPlus was centre stage. It’s an innovative, community-led approach to employment support, delivered through social housing, that’s being tested across 10 sites in England.

Central London has seen some of the largest falls in employee jobs, with early estimates suggesting a fall of 3.2% in Westminster over last year

First labour market stats since NIC and min wage increases in April.

Growth in employee jobs continues to slow and March/April marks first fall (-0.2% and 0.3%) since April 2021. Largest fall in the hospitality sector.

Unemployment remains relatively flat, growth in payrolled employees has slowed and vacancies continue to fall (to pre-pandemic rates).

Hospitality & retail have seen the largest falls in vacancies and payrolled employees - both sectors likely to be impacted NICs and min wage increases in April.

Sir Stephen Timms setting out what we can expect in the green paper on benefits reform later this month inc ensuring focus on proper, tailored support; restoring trust; and making sure it’s financially sustainable. And reiterating links to the Make Work Pay plans and the Mayfield review

Great to be at the launch of @oecd-ocde.bsky.social adult skills survey

England scores above average for literacy and numeracy, and improvements in young people’s skills means that England is no longer an international outlier

But there are still 8.5m working-age adults with low essential skills

Based on what we know so far about GBW WP (due 12.30), there is welcome focus on joining up support locally:

- £125m for 8 work, health & skills trailblazers
- £45m for 8 youth trailblazers
- £15m for GBW plans in other areas
- £115m for 'Connect to Work' (Universal Support)

In some parts of the country, e.g. parts of Liverpool City Region, 1 in 7 people are out of work due to long term sickness (compared to 1 in 100 in other areas)

There are large and persistent inequalities between groups and areas: closing the disability employment rate gap would mean an extra 2.4 million people in work

🧵 on the Get Britain Working plan and why it matters

The rise in people out of work due to ill health (up by 1/3 to 2.8m in LFS) is mirrored in admin data on benefit claims. The no. of people claiming out-of-work benefits due to sickness or disability has increased by ~1m (37%) since 2020 to 3.2m