Jobs Market

Lord Hunt of Wirral Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Hunt of Wirral]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the jobs market, and of the implications for the wider economy.

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Katz) (Lab)]

My Lords, there is positive information in the labour market. The claimant count is falling—43,000 on the year—more than half a million people have moved into work over the past year, and real wages have risen more since July 2024 than they did in the first 10 years of the previous Government. However, there is more to do, and we are delivering through our Get Britain Working plan, which includes creating a new jobs and careers service, tackling economic inactivity due to ill health and delivering our youth guarantee.

[Lord Hunt of Wirral (Con)]

I make no apology for holding the Government to account on the issue of employment. Having been brought up in Liverpool and been a Merseyside MP for 21 years, I have seen the damage that can be done by depriving people of the dignity of work. Now we have unemployment rising towards 2 million. In my 50 years in Parliament, every Labour Government have left office with unemployment higher than when they took office. When will this Government realise that you cannot tax and regulate businesses into growth?

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

My Lords, I share the noble Lord’s sentiment about the importance of the dignity of work, but unemployment is a long-term trend, both here and across the G7, and it has been rising since 2023. The good news is, however, that the number of people who are economically inactive has fallen by nearly half a million, because more people are actively looking for work. Indeed, last year, employment grew by more than half a million, which is nearly twice as much as the rise in unemployment. The noble Lord asked what we will do about it, and the answer is clear. The Government are taking action on young people who are neither earning nor learning, which the last Government ignored. The Government are taking action on long-term sickness, which under the last Government reached a record high. The Government have seen pay rise more since they were elected than under the first 10 years of the previous Administration, helping to tackle the cost of living. We are going to solve the problems we inherited, and we are doing something about it.