Barclays Releases New Access to Employment Report

The past decade has seen arguably the greatest shift in employment models for a generation. Technology has in part driven a de-centralisation in employment in a way not seen since the mass-privatisations of the 1980s in the UK.

Back then we saw public sector employment peak at over 7m in 1979; just a decade later this had fallen to less than 5.8m and would carry on falling until the turn of the century¹.

Fast-forward, and instead of a move from public to private sector, we’ve seen a huge shift towards self-employment in the UK. Since the turn of the century, the number of self-employed has soared by 43% to the start of 2016², with the latest ONS figures estimating 4.85m people in the UK as being self-employed, making up over 15% of all employment³.

And more change is coming – Brexit will see the introduction of new immigration policies, as yet unknown. The new Immigration Bill, announced in the 2017 Queen’s Speech, is designed to allow the UK ‘to control the number of people coming here from Europe while still allowing us to attract the brightest and best.’

With forecasts suggesting⁴ that there will be over 4 million more high-skilled jobs in the UK than workers by 2024, how will both new immigration policies and increased training and skills-development help to plug this gap?

Will new immigration rules help or hinder? Currently over 2 million migrants from the European Economic Area (EEA) are employed in high-skilled jobs or are qualified to degree-level or above, meaning restrictive policies in this area could exacerbate the forecast skills gap.

Along with new regulations on everything from apprenticeships to the National Living Wage, employers are facing a range of pressures. This report seeks to explore some of the key areas of concern that our clients have spoken to us about, and seeks to share some of our expertise around key trends and pressures on employment:

1. Technology driving self-employment
2. Access to employment – apprenticeships and the skills gap
3. Cost pressures and benefits of the Living Wage
4. Immigration – Brexit Bites?

Click here to read the full report and explore these themes.   ¹Bank of England - A millennium of macroeconomic data – table A51 
²ONS - Trends in self-employment in the UK: 2001 to 2015 
³ONS - UK labour market: September 2017
⁴Local Government Association