Job Security Crashes to 3.5-Year Low, But One Sector Bucks Trend

Key takeaways:

UK job security has hit a 3.5-year low across every sector except IT and telecoms, where confidence is actually rising.
Retail has been hit hardest, with rising costs, weaker spending, and supply chain pressures compounding a decade-long decline in retail jobs.
Business owners can protect roles by investing in cross-training existing staff, rather than cutting headcount outright.

Job security across the UK has slumped to its lowest level in three and a half years, according to the latest S&P Global UK consumer sentiment index.

Every industry felt the squeeze last month – bar the IT and telecoms sector, where workers reported feeling more secure in their roles.

The slump comes as households pull back on spending amid rising cost-of-living pressures, with knock-on effects already being felt by consumer-facing businesses – and retail workers being hit hardest of all.

As the gap between sectors widens, we dig into the data and share practical advice for business owners navigating the squeeze, without losing their best workers.

Retail workers bear the brunt in September

Retail workers reported the steepest fall in job security of any sector in September, a squeeze driven by a combination of rising employment costs, weaker consumer spending, and supply chain disruption linked to the Iran war’s impact on energy and shipping.

This isn’t a one-off wobble for the industry. Retail has been absorbing higher costs – from wages to business rates to input prices – for some time. This pressure has been felt more acutely by small retailers, who tend to have thinner margins and less room to absorb rising costs than larger chains.

Beyond the headaches for business owners, the toll on workers is resolute, with the latest ONS figures showing that there are 122,000 fewer jobs in retail than two years ago, and 410,000 fewer than a decade ago.

Why IT and telecoms are the only industries to buck the trend

Despite job security falling across the board last month, S&P Global’s UK Consumer Sentiment Index, which is based on a panel of 1,500 households, flagged one notable outlier.

Workers in IT and telecoms have actually reported feeling more secure in their employment – a notable divergence, given how exposed the tech sector has looked in recent downturns.

While the survey doesn’t spell out a single course, tech has continued to see comparatively strong wage and hiring growth, as demand for digital infrastructure, software and cybersecurity tends to be treated as essential spend by businesses, even as budgets tighten elsewhere.

Yet, for businesses with shrinking margins, keeping hold of valuable workers isn’t always a privilege they can afford to keep. Fortunately, as job insecurity continues to climb higher, there are steps you can take to protect the team you have without letting costs spiral.

How to protect the roles you have, without sacrificing performance

We spoke to Conor Gater, CEO of Panelling Direct, about how small businesses can keep costs low without sacrificing performance or the team they already have.

Instead of cutting headcount, he told us the answer lies in training staff across multiple areas of the business, rather than restructuring around fewer, narrower roles.

“I’ve focused on making my team more cross-functional. I put a lot of trust in my staff and identify different areas of the business they can support with… “Putting work into your employees’ development pays the business back as staff excels in various areas.”

For business owners trying to streamline costs without losing good people, that kind of investment can be the difference between cutting a role and keeping one.