There has been some better news for business with the recent trade agreement between the USA and UK at a tariff of 10% rather than the threatened 20%.
But the jobs market is continuing to weaken.
The latest jobs figures indicate a troubling trend in the UK labour market, with the unemployment rate rising to 4.5% between January and March, the highest level in nearly four years.
Recent data reveals that 1.17m people in the UK are currently on zero-hours contracts, marking a 12% increase over the past year, despite Labour’s commitment to abolish these “exploitative” arrangements.
Analysts said the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicated April’s increase in employer National Insurance contributions and the National Living Wage could be having an effect.
The ONS figures also showed that wage growth slowed, but pay is still rising faster than the rate of inflation.
Regular earnings, which exclude bonuses, grew at an annual pace of 5.6% in the first three months of the year.
“The broader picture continues to be of the labour market cooling,” said the ONS’s director of economic statistics, Liz McKeown.
And it’s not good news for business as Nissan has announced a further round of cuts globally of around 20,000 jobs.
Burberry, too, has said it could cut some 1,700 jobs as part of plans to reduce costs by 2027.
Clearly we still have a long way to go.