Over the past year, some 142,000 payrolled jobs have been lost, according to the latest labour market figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Another 8,000 disappeared last month alone. Unemployment remained at 4.7 per cent – higher than a year ago. The bulk of job losses came in accommodation and food services, which shed 90,000 workers. The culprit seems obvious: the anti-business tax raid unleashed by the Chancellor in the last Budget.

That £25 billion hike on employee National Insurance, as well as the increase in the minimum wage, is not just discouraging job creation but making employers think twice about keeping people on. And with the government’s employment rights bill sailing through parliament businesses fear things can only get worse.

We don’t just have to take

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