Government and campaigns
Things are really hotting up, and I’m not talking even about the rising mercury or the fact that interest rates have hit their highest rate in 27 years. It is, of course, the ongoing leadership debate which is becoming more antagonistic and dramatic day by day – brace yourselves, there are still 4 weeks to go! As Truss and Sunak fight to be the next Prime Minister, calls are growing for current PM, Boris Johnson, to intervene in the cost-of-living crisis. However, Johnson, firmly embracing caretaker mode, is resisting calls, suggesting it’s firmly a matter for his successor.
The REC Campaigns team on the other hand is of course working hard to prepare for the new Prime Minister (and a whole set of new ministers) on 5 September. We’re continuing to drive home our findings and recommendations from our latest ‘Overcoming Shortages’ report – more on that below – and we’re preparing our Budget submission. We may not know whether it’ll be Prime Minister Truss or Sunak at the helm, but one thing does seem clear, we’re getting an early Budget – likely to take place around September 21st.
Earlier this week, the Campaigns team met six civil servants from HM Treasury to discuss the findings and recommendations from our Overcoming Shortages report. Attended by policy leads for skills, immigration, and the labour market team, the meeting was engaging and positive, with an agreement to meet with the REC again in a couple of months, once the new ministerial team is in place. Officials are keen to gather case studies around immigration – the impact of the points-based system and the labour market outlook post-Brexit. If you’d like to share any, please email Yerin on yerin.seo@rec.uk.com. This is just one of the positive meetings we’re having as part of our Overcoming Shortages campaign with more coming up with MPs, Peers, MSPs in Scotland and MLAs in Northern Ireland.
The REC has been invited to give oral evidence to two more Select Committees looking into labour and skills shortages. The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has opened an inquiry on “people and skills in in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)”. We’ve been speaking to members operating in the STEM sectors to find out what they’re seeing on the ground, and we’ll be using those insights to inform our written and oral response. The deadline for written submissions is 6 September. If you’re interested in sharing your views, please email Sam on sam.beggs@rec.uk.com.
In addition, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee has also launched an inquiry on “UK labour supply”. This will be another great opportunity for us to talk about the findings and recommendations from our Overcoming Shortages report. The deadline for written submissions for this one is 23 September. The oral evidence session for both committees is Tuesday 13 September – a very busy day for our Deputy CEO, Kate Shoesmith! If you want to tune in, you’ll be able to follow both sessions on Parliament TV.
The next Education sector group meeting will be taking place on 15 September. This meeting will feature updates on key legal changes including Harpur Trust v Brazel and the repeal of Regulation 7. We will also be joined by CCS to discuss the newly launched framework, and one of the government’s approved digital Right to Work (RTW) providers to discuss the new system. As always, we’ll share the latest on the REC’s campaigns work. To register to attend click here.
The KMPG and REC’s latest UK Reports on Jobs registered the slowest increases in both permanent staff appointments and temp billings for 17 months, as increased uncertainty around the outlook led some clients to become more cautious around staff hiring. We’ll be publishing our latest Labour Market Tracker tomorrow, so keep an eye out for the latest insight into how the jobs market is evolving.
The latest Report on Jobs was covered by a number of major outlets last week, including BBC News, Sky News, the Times and the Metro. Radio 4’s Today programme spoke to Chris Gray of Manpower about the report (starting around 26 mins here).
The REC’s Kate Shoesmith also appeared on the Today programme on Wednesday alongside the CEO of Mumsnet, talking about labour shortages and in particular getting older workers back into the labour market. You can listen to that interview here, starting at around 2 hours 49 minutes.
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