Reply to: State of the Market

[Manic]

Most retailers dont employ very many staff at all these days, my local Tesco seems to run on about a third of the staff since self checkout tills arrived.

According to the latest report by the ONS there were 2.76m jobs in retail in March 2025. The four-quarter average, which smooths out the seasonal variations in hiring, was 2.80m jobs in March 2025, 93,000 fewer than at the same point last year, and 364,000 fewer than in 2015.

On a four-quarter average there were 1.30m full-time and 1.50m part-time jobs. The number of full-time jobs is down 117,000 on a decade ago. Meanwhile, the number of part-time jobs is down 246,000 over the same period.



Commenting on these figures, Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive at the British Retail Consortium, said:

“Retail jobs have continued to fall, with 364,000 fewer jobs than ten years ago. More jobs have been lost in retail in a decade than exist across the whole of the fishing, car manufacture and steel-making industries combined. And while factory closures have quickly been met by promises of action, this wave of retail jobs losses appears to go unnoticed by government.

They employ loads, I didn't say they gave them all lots of hours. In fact the opposite, they run on a skeleton staff with short shifts (so they don't have to pay breaks).

[willendure]

I view the next election as being a re-run of the Brexit referendum.

Great, because that was a bloody disaster. Now wait, some snowflake is going to cry and get the mods to delete all our posts now.

[willendure]

Curiously, the large Tesco in the nearest town always has well-staffed checkouts, so that use of self-service is a matter of preference, and not the only option.

Noticed that too in my nearest large Tesco. Nice folk work there too, and its sometimes even quicker than the self serve, so I use the staffed checkouts.

[Protagoras]

Most retailers dont employ very many staff at all these days, my local Tesco seems to run on about a third of the staff since self checkout tills arrived.

Curiously, the large Tesco in the nearest town always has well-staffed checkouts, so that use of self-service is a matter of preference, and not the only option.

If only some of certain retailers would employ contractors we could sort out some appalling so-called self-service checkouts. The only ones in my experience that work 100% are those in Decathlon.

We could design, implement and most importantly actually test self-service checkouts so that the things function properly more than 30% of the time without staff intervention. It's not just me - I see lots of people queuing for a cashier while the self-service tills have no queue. And the staff don't like them either!

[rocktronAMP]

aye, - right!

Come on guys! Put a knocker on this bantering hot puffing and ruffing. The HMRC are laughing at all of us and it is not a great advertisement for professionalism.

We should be doing much better than this. I bet the bunch of us have the talent to rewrite / refactor / redesign / remodel entire codebases for a better NHS, school system or e-commerce service. We just need a better way to reach those clients and those client ought to be able find us.

I have had one interview this week for a perm job - 25 minutes with talent acquisition with 3 more stages to come, if they liked me day before yesterday.
I have had one contract interview promised for two weeks. I asked the agent several times already, he said it is coming.

I tried Hubstuff, Malt, Hackajob, Indeed and Reed job sites; and I even found a Spotify podcast called the "2 Hour Job Search". I listened to it, with very high hopes, but it is useless for UK professionals IMHO, because we are long past the university graduate level and also the job market is dominated by recruitment agencies. I like the statistics, which the author Steve Dalton quotes about USA companies, that the search strategy should go for the 99% of business outside the Big Tech Bros. It would make sense. For contractors, we would need to market ourselves direct to companies, but how, most emails would be binned. Finding the networked individual, from back in the day, university (polytechnic) is a long shot. It is USA thing, I think.

ah boo - numbers game it is and a dating thing all rolled into one economic mess of dog doo-doo. But I know the feeling that we are losing it. Fighting between ourselves is definitely divided and not united.

[kingmob]

There are other reasons too.

Part timers earning less than 5k per annum don't attract NI rates.
Minimum wage for under 18 is lower than 21+

It's why most retail stores employ loads and loads of poorly paid under 21s on zero hour contracts.

Most retailers dont employ very many staff at all these days, my local Tesco seems to run on about a third of the staff since self checkout tills arrived.

According to the latest report by the ONS there were 2.76m jobs in retail in March 2025. The four-quarter average, which smooths out the seasonal variations in hiring, was 2.80m jobs in March 2025, 93,000 fewer than at the same point last year, and 364,000 fewer than in 2015.

On a four-quarter average there were 1.30m full-time and 1.50m part-time jobs. The number of full-time jobs is down 117,000 on a decade ago. Meanwhile, the number of part-time jobs is down 246,000 over the same period.



Commenting on these figures, Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive at the British Retail Consortium, said:

“Retail jobs have continued to fall, with 364,000 fewer jobs than ten years ago. More jobs have been lost in retail in a decade than exist across the whole of the fishing, car manufacture and steel-making industries combined. And while factory closures have quickly been met by promises of action, this wave of retail jobs losses appears to go unnoticed by government.

[sadkingbilly]

blah blah blah

aye, - right!

[oliverson]

I think I'm getting survivors guilt now.
oh, dear.
oh, no, just a spot of indigestion.

inevitable at your age

[avonleigh]

Is anyone seeing much change in the market out there? Since accepting a perm job, I've been contacted about a few more contracts recently so hoping things may be picking up a little?

There has been more testing roles on Jobserve last few days. But nothing substantial.

[Cookielove]

It isn't just the contractor community though. I think the Conservatives and Labour especially don't understand the strength of feeling. At my youngest son's state secondary they ran mock elections in the lead up to the 2024 election. Reform won. Kids aren't stupid, they know they're being repeatedly sold down the river. Fierce competition for university places, fierce competition for jobs. Being discriminated against if you dare to be white or middle class, heaven forbid. Maybe, just maybe, politicians need to start putting the British first. I view the next election as being a re-run of the Brexit referendum. I know there's strength of feeling on both sides but as an observation, if our dear leaders had simply put the British people first, I suspect Brexit would never have happened.

Anyway, I suspect this is getting rather off topic.

Is anyone seeing much change in the market out there? Since accepting a perm job, I've been contacted about a few more contracts recently so hoping things may be picking up a little?

Yes to all of this....as I've said earlier this is far wider felt than just in Tech, people can't get jobs starting with our youngsters.

Labour especially do not get the strength of feeling that there is.

Being discriminated against for being white is commonplace now you are spot on.

I agree if previous governments had put the British people first I am doubtful that Brexit would have happened.

I think the support for Reform is very,very large indeed, some don't want to say publicly that I've spoken to but will vote Reform as they can't stomach what has happened and it is time for the UK to put it's own first.

Too late for us oldies but hopefully better days ahead for our children who can see what is happening, same they did a poll at my son's school and Reform was way out ahead.

Not seen any uptick in the market as yet.

[ShandyDrinker]

Among the people I speak to, this is the prevailing view. i.e. It can't be any worse.

So the downsides of Reform are apparent, but not considered sufficient negative compared with the two main parties so people think they might as well be given a chance. The other thing I hear is people saying "I'll be voting Reform, but don't tell anyone"; if this is reality then Reform could do very well indeed.

I'm not sure that Reform would be less beholding to big business than the other parties.

I'm far from convinced that they would put the peoples' interests above those of their big business buddies. To create prosperity we need to be doing value-add jobs .. we need a strategy of on-shoring for this and national security.

I have formed the impression that this 'contractor' community is on the older side; by the time Reform get into power and start to sort out the country it would be too late to re-establish the contract market as we knew it.

It isn't just the contractor community though. I think the Conservatives and Labour especially don't understand the strength of feeling. At my youngest son's state secondary they ran mock elections in the lead up to the 2024 election. Reform won. Kids aren't stupid, they know they're being repeatedly sold down the river. Fierce competition for university places, fierce competition for jobs. Being discriminated against if you dare to be white or middle class, heaven forbid. Maybe, just maybe, politicians need to start putting the British first. I view the next election as being a re-run of the Brexit referendum. I know there's strength of feeling on both sides but as an observation, if our dear leaders had simply put the British people first, I suspect Brexit would never have happened.

Anyway, I suspect this is getting rather off topic.

Is anyone seeing much change in the market out there? Since accepting a perm job, I've been contacted about a few more contracts recently so hoping things may be picking up a little?

[avonleigh]

Unfair to blame immigration on Labour. The Conservaties are equally to blame. The same as IR35. Conservatives removing IR35 and Reform doing mass deportations is just nonsense. Neither will happen. Voted tory all my life but this time voted labour cos of the mess the tories had made. Didn't want to vote labour but choice was basically would I rather be smacked in the face or punched in the stomach. All the parties now are utterly incompetant and totally out of touch and corrupt / self serving.

[Protagoras]

The UK is now in the unenviable position of having to take a chance. The thing is that, I now don't care how bad Reform may turn out to be. Can they really be any worse than the other two? If nothing else, the direction of travel for the country has to taken out of the hands of the Labour and Conservative duopoly. British people need to be put first for a change. If Reform doesn't do it, I'm sure another party will eventually.

Among the people I speak to, this is the prevailing view. i.e. It can't be any worse.

So the downsides of Reform are apparent, but not considered sufficient negative compared with the two main parties so people think they might as well be given a chance. The other thing I hear is people saying "I'll be voting Reform, but don't tell anyone"; if this is reality then Reform could do very well indeed.

I'm not sure that Reform would be less beholding to big business than the other parties.

I'm far from convinced that they would put the peoples' interests above those of their big business buddies. To create prosperity we need to be doing value-add jobs .. we need a strategy of on-shoring for this and national security.

I have formed the impression that this 'contractor' community is on the older side; by the time Reform get into power and start to sort out the country it would be too late to re-establish the contract market as we knew it.

[sadkingbilly]

I think I'm getting survivors guilt now.
oh, dear.
oh, no, just a spot of indigestion.

[willendure]

The UK is now in the unenviable position of having to take a chance. The thing is that, I now don't care how bad Reform may turn out to be. Can they really be any worse than the other two? If nothing else, the direction of travel for the country has to taken out of the hands of the Labour and Conservative duopoly. British people need to be put first for a change. If Reform doesn't do it, I'm sure another party will eventually.

Sort of with you on that - I think Reform will be awful, but maybe our established political classes need to have a wrecking ball thrown at them. A reset of the system and we can build something better on the other side.

There is no way in hell they can deport 1 million people - where will they send them? But they can revoke IR35! Like you, I feel we haven't got much to lose.