Member

This impediment to flexibility in the UK’s workforce and its earnings could not come at a worse time. We are already seeing the beginnings of what could become a crisis in the availability of entry-level work. The drop in vacancies, the recent spike in unemployment and the words of warning from the Governor of the Bank of England all resonate with me. However, it is interesting how experiencing these things on an anecdotal level is so much more powerful. For our end-of-season sale, we always take on temps; this year, the ratio of applicants to vacancies rose by 25% in one year, to 61 applicants for every job. It varies regionally—one shop in Birmingham had 1,200 applications for four jobs. In my view, there is something of a crisis coming in entry-level employment and, if Amendment 2 is not accepted, this Bill could significantly exacerbate that problem.