Have redundancies in England spiked recently?
Posted by Maia478@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 155 comments
I check my LinkedIn feed every day, and in the last 2 weeks, I've noticed many posts from people who have lost their jobs recently, all from England, especially the South East. They are mostly from marketing, UX, product management and recruitment.
The last time I saw so many similar posts was in the second half of 2023.
What is going on? Have you noticed the same?
Octoboy1@reddit
I work for one of the largest insurance companies in Europe. They recently gutted 90% of our call staff and opened up a call centre in india
They can hire 3 of their workers for everyone 1 of ours.
Its made my job a nightmare because I do QA work and a huge challenge is customers will say stuff like "I've had incident outside Sainsburys" but the staff don't know what a Sainsburys is so that becomes a whole thing
They're cheap though so our head office don't give a shit
BitterFootball4874@reddit
Also the support staff at my old job were in India and nice as most of them were it was just crazily inefficient
TheAwesomeAwesome@reddit
Sounds a lot like my role in a bank doing QC. Offshoring so much and then we're having similar issues.There are people reviewing customer transactions that don't even know the cost of living or that we pay tax on income in the UK... And that's just the beginning of the issues
SolidTemperature7580@reddit
Was made redundant a couple of months ago as QC for a bank, they moved department offshore to India. The casehandlers who I was checking were already in India and they didn’t have a clue about a lot of UK-specific things and were always trying to challenge feedback because of it. But now they are marking themselves I guess the quality rate will look like it’s improved.
rolotonight@reddit
BT Openreach have outsourced their staff to India. I reported a downed telegraph pole in Manchester and they were asking if it was Manchester in the US or UK. I said you work for BRITISH TELECOM.
CapableLetterhead@reddit
Yes. I got some woman who didn't understand me at all. I personally avoid companies that don't have a call center in the uk.
JuiceChance@reddit
“So in the US” :D
5childrenandit@reddit
So, is that 'British, Arkansas' or...
GFoxtrot@reddit
Outsource to India > Insource again > Outsource to near shore (Poland, Romania etc)
Seems to be the trend
iBonsaiBob@reddit
Yo man, we've been outsourcing so much we outsourced our investment now loads of our money leaves the country and we can't afford to outsourxw to the Polish any more as their economy is doing much better than ours.
themcsame@reddit
As the 'outsourced' work starts to cost more in those countries, it'll get shoved over to the next big money saver.
We've already been seeing it with manufacturing. It's no coincidence that as China has developed, we've started seeing more and more of the cheap stuff being made elsewhere in places like Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and India.
GrandDukeOfNowhere@reddit
Our work outsources so much stuff to Poland, a large part of my job is now just putting things in boxes to go over there. But then their equipment breaks so often, and they don't have enough engineers to fix it in a timely manor that much of that work gets sent back to us to do here. Then when they're up and running again and we start sending work to them again, it turns out they made most of their staff redundant in that time, and they complain that it's too much work because they don't have enough staff and half of them are still in training.
Taken_Abroad_Book@reddit
I lived in Sofia a few years ago and we took over a team from Krakow. Those poor bastards had to come train us.
3 years later it was moved form us to Athens.
I belive 10 years on its in India now with 2 people plus a shitty AI bot. (Poland had 40ish, we had 25)
Hot_Beef@reddit
Enshittification lifecycle
Taken_Abroad_Book@reddit
We did back office stuff for cisco sales teams and they hated the changes and cuts so much. All the while their bosses were gaslighting them that it's so much better
Hot_Beef@reddit
I'm a network engineer so occasionally make purchasing decisions on network kit. This is hilarious and devastating haha
Taken_Abroad_Book@reddit
Have you ever fucked about with CCW? Even for estimates it's absolutely fucked.
You can build out a valid config with GVE. Export it to Excel. Import it to a deal on SFDC and the whole bastard thing explodes.
Oh, look you have 100 fucking configs that are all valid, have all been put together by GVE. But for some stupid FUCKING reason all of them have that fucking red 'invalid' at the bottom because it didn't pick up the right power cord. Or maybe it did, but you need to click edit config then save and now suddenly it's valid?
Now. Imagine that for a global RNSD for the likes of Sky. Thousands and thousands of configs. No way to just just say "all routers on 70% discount, all desk phones are 72%". Oh no. It has to be individual bastarding configs that are 1% different discount than an identical machine with a different country's power cord.
Vixrotre@reddit
Yep, got laid off from my previous job cause I didn't want to move to Poland or Romania and get paid less. They offered us up to £1000 to cover moving costs.
Last I checked my old company doesn't hire customer support agents in UK at all any more.
ODogg1933@reddit
£1000 moving costs is a piss take, who’s going to accept that.
Vixrotre@reddit
Right??? It's pitiful for moving if I was by myself, but I also have a pet and a partner, and there was no extra financial help for moving with either. I didn't want to move anyway, but I definitely was not leaving my chosen family for over 30% pay CUT!
redsquizza@reddit
South Africa seems to get their share of call centres these days.
No-Photograph3463@reddit
Followed by Outsource to AI chatbot coming soon.
andyteg@reddit
Been on the losing side in many of these scenarios. Most recently company opened office in India. Before that in 2023, my role got moved to Poland and they could hire two FTEs for my equivalent salary in the UK. It is a cycle for sure!!
Dugg@reddit
Was this a bank because it sounds familiar…
andyteg@reddit
IT actually - in the data/analytics/report space. I know there has been a big surge in AI investment recently, but there is also a big push to move to nearshore or offshore lower-cost markets.
prooocrastinator@reddit
I worked in QA for a big UK travel insurance company last year, and they made their whole QA department redundant. Decided if they could outsource their call centre staff, they could outsource their QA too. Definitely a trend going on within the insurance industry.
Octoboy1@reddit
Oh yeah for sure, we've been told we're safe at the moment, but they said that some of the other teams who got let go. I reckon I got about a year
Thing is I've been here for 15 years so I'm not leaving without that redundancy package
prooocrastinator@reddit
Fingers crossed for you. Most people in my team had 8-13 years experience, and we were offered a retention bonus for staying while they trained up the outsourcers, so put it this way.... we definitely got paid 😂 glad you have some other skills to make yourself more valuable though. Wish you the best
muppsyton@reddit
People want to work from home and create 100% remote jobs. The natural conclusion of work that can be done anywhere is work that can be done by anyone which in turn becomes the cheapest person.
Taken_Abroad_Book@reddit
I worked for concentrix for a few years, based in eastern Europe. Supporting Cisco systems internal sales teams.
I fuuuuuucking hated the bullshit someone on high decided was "good customer service". I'm British, and was doing CS for the UK&Ireland region. I know what we like for customer support.
But I I don't know what I'm talking about. I need to follow the scripts. Never mind that when I mentally checked out and just started doing it my way my CSAT surveys were top of the floor by a country mile I was still getting pulled by QA for not following the script to a tee.
An example being that our role was to be the middleman between the cisco salespeople and their horribly broken deal and sales platform. They would send us an excel sheet of some router config and ask us to load it into the sales platform. It was finicky but we got good at it.
We had to 'first touch' a ticket within 2 hours, if I was assigned a ticket that had a simple config I'd just create the deal load the config then the first touch on the case was the resolution. Here's your deal number with the config loaded, and mark the ticket resolved.
The sales teams loved that. But no. It was decreed that the proper method was to reply "hello. Thank you for contacting us. I can see you would like a deal created and the attached config loaded into it. I will aim to resolve within 48 hours"
We couldn't use a copypaste, so the amount of time spent coming up with a unique 'first touch' could easily have just completed what they were requesting and had the ticket closed.
Ok_Analyst_5640@reddit
Companies that do this need boycotting because it always leads to a bad service. The energy company octopus usually comes out on top in which surveys largely because when people have to deal with them they get through quickly to a UK call centre to staff that are genuinely helpful.
Hitching-galaxy@reddit
It’ll be back in the uk again soon
Reactance15@reddit
[ Removed by Reddit ]
sleepyprojectionist@reddit
My company has actually gone the other way to save money.
We have moved a couple of our product lines from the US to the UK because our managers promised that we could build the products with half of the technicians, who get paid about a third of our American colleagues.
They are testing quite a few automated production techniques too, so in the medium-term I could see a production facility with a few techs to feed the robots.
Doomergeneration@reddit
I’m at the point where I think the entire system is now a fugazi, most jobs don’t really feel real. It’s all a bit weird
Non-wholesomechungus@reddit
Well yeah the monetary system is based on central banking and infinity debt
Confident_Yak_1411@reddit
Infinite money printing has destroyed our economy, fiat currency collapse is inevitable.
If they carry on printing currency to prop up the system, the system will become even further untethered from reality.
If they stop printing, the house of cards falls down and we have a depression.
Ok-Cryptographer440@reddit
I have no idea why this is downvoted?
Kernoriordan@reddit
Let me guess, crypto is the answer?
Confident_Yak_1411@reddit
God no! Actual money - precious metals.
brasssica@reddit
They are only precious because that's the vibe that someone picked.
Artistic-Variety5920@reddit
Well unfortunately yes it is - and to be clear I am not a supporter of it.
We're watching the managed decline of global currencies so that central banks can reboot with a sovereign digital currency.
In entirely unrelated news, don't forget to fill out the gov.uk survey on digital id....
Maia478@reddit (OP)
They will continue to print ...
brasssica@reddit
The concepts of money or companies are all made-up vibes (see the first couple chapters of Sapiens). That doesn’t mean they aren't practical ways of organizing real activities, though!
BeefCentral@reddit
Infinity debt and limited resources. I can't see a problem with this system. /s
Doomergeneration@reddit
That sums it up, the entire system has lost its vibe
ThinkAboutThatFor1Se@reddit
Hyper Normalisation?
GreyFox_1337@reddit
Fugayzi, fugazi. It's a whazy. It's a woozie. It's fairy dust. It doesn't exist
iiiSushiii@reddit
In the NHS Integrated Care Boards about 14,000 people have been made redundant or taken voluntary redundancy due to Wes Streeting.
Downtown-Park131@reddit
It was the recent NHS redundancies that really shocked me. I say mention of it a couple of places online from personal posts, but struggled to find much when I goggled. Surely it should be national news
quiet_control909@reddit
What's he done?
Careless_Soup_109@reddit
My theory is that the job market is actually really bad, but most don't notice because they didn't get fired yet.
ProsperityandNo@reddit
Contractor here, finance. Or ex contractor it would seem. I was earning £100k +. Now I work in retail. The contract market is the worst I have ever seen it.
I haven't been able to find a contract since early 2025 and now a few of the permanent people who used to hire me, aka my network, have been made redundant.
Nobody in government seems to even be aware of it.
Maia478@reddit (OP)
You are absolutely right. Even if they hear about others losing their jobs, most of them think: "Those made redundant were not good at their jobs", etc.
andyteg@reddit
yes there is a great deal of stigma in this regard. Until it happens to you and you understand how bad the market is, you probably have that sense of security...
PressureBeautiful515@reddit
Depends what you mean by recently. The ONS has figures up to Feb this year, and will publish newer ones in about three weeks.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/redundancies/timeseries/beir/lms
The number is redundancies per 1000 employees over a rolling 3-month period. So divide by 30 to get the percentage of employees made redundant per month.
It was 1.5 to 2 times higher than the most recent figure, for most of the period for which we have numbers. The really big spikes are the crash of 2008-2009 and the pandemic, both taking it into over 1% territory (i.e. more than 10 per 1000.)
Since July last year it's been around 4.5 to 5 per 1000. So a random selection of 3000 people, in a given month maybe 5 would be made redundant.
For 6 months before that it was 3.5 to 4. So in a random selection of 3000 people, in a given month 4 would have been made redundant. The increase is an extra 1 person per month out of a randomly chosen 3000.
If you have noticed an uptick, you are seeing LinkedIn's algorithm in action, sending your feed the posts that will cause you to spend more time on their site.
Isoorc@reddit
This is super useful re the data, thank you, and good point about the algorithms kicking in once someone has searched for or otherwise invested time on the topic of redundancy
hammo82@reddit
Absolutely, my company is cutting a third of people , which equals 40-50k people
Maia478@reddit (OP)
Are they outsourcing those jobs to Asia?
MillySO@reddit
I work at a university. Over 500 people (out of around 2,000) have either been made redundant, retired early or left and weren’t replaced in the last couple of years. Overseas students are going to friendlier countries (our visa policies have become very racist) and companies aren’t sending their employees because the government is cutting degree apprenticeships.
BirthdayBoth304@reddit
Yep universities are at a tipping point - years of atrocious policy making (visas, fees, OfS), removal of the numbers cap, wholly incompetent managers, VCs on crazy pay, decimation of professional service staff, entrenchment of precarity for academics, woeful terms for students. Total shitshow
CapitalCharming394@reddit
Plus many universities have high rise student accommodation which now needs very expensive post-Grenfell cladding fire improvements.
Puzzleheaded-End4435@reddit
I work(ed) in marketing and my job has now officially been replaced with AI and cheap foreign labour from the Philippines. My final day is next Friday.
I have over 10 years experience and I’ve spent the last year or so of my career watching basically everyone junior to me get replaced by ai or a foreign agency. The past 6 months of my job I’ve been managing only foreign workers and helping ‘refine AI prompts’ it’s been miserable.
I think eventually we will swing back to hiring UK based marketers because the quality AI/overseas labour produces is so poor that the money saved on marketing isn’t going to replace the money lost from audiences shrinking. Since we’ve implemented our new work system we’ve been trending down in every possible metric. The big bosses reckon it’ll stabilise and then grow. There is zero evidence to suggest that’s going to be the case.
I also lost my marketing role during the pandemic, and I took the government’s offer to retrain, so I have a healthcare qualification that I’m hoping to using to get out of marketing completely. Although, ironically, the reason I’m still in marketing is because when I finished my degree the NHS had a hiring freeze so I was forced back here anyway.
Wrong-booby7584@reddit
That will backfire. Marketing is ultimately about people and relationships
CapitalCharming394@reddit
And trust. Why should we trust AI generated content.
Individual_Mud_6114@reddit
Was made redundant beginning of last year and still not in work (comms/marketing) - despite hundreds of applications. Salaries have tanked and massive competition for each role (three interviews recently I’ve been told 270 applicants, 140 and 190)
Maia478@reddit (OP)
I was in marketing as well but switched to advertising (big media agency) two years ago, for more stability. I believe only big companies/agencies can still afford to offer stable marketing jobs.
SwansEscapedRonson@reddit
I’ve worked for a really good university for 7 years and there’s over 100 of us losing our jobs this summer. Been invited to take the pay grade below us or express an interest in a higher grade, but there won’t be enough to go around
BirthdayBoth304@reddit
Yes the university sector is the one to watch in 2027. Dozens of universities are currently "restructuring" and we know that's always the precursor to redundancies. Plus a new private 'university' has just been accredited where lectures are delivered by AI trained on a bespoke LLM..doom times.
dvb70@reddit
For large corporations its a trend at the moment to be making redundancies. They are all being sold on the idea AI can replace much of the work force. The company I work for made 14,000 redundancies last year and the shareholders loved it so its been non stop rounds of redundancies all year so far. Every week I hear of another person I have worked with being made redundant. I am just waiting for my number to come up.
Wino3416@reddit
It’s short sighted stupidity. If nobody is earning money who the fuck is going to buy their stupid products? People are so fucking stupid.
queefybean@reddit
My partner dodged three rounds of redundancies in about three years, but they got him on the fourth round.
Frustrated_Barnacle@reddit
A guy at my place has been here over 10 years, survived 8 managers and god knows how many redunduncies. They got him this time though.
Brilliant at his job too, well respected and lots of knowledge. Eye opening - tenure won't protect you when management don't like you.
Time_Shower9034@reddit
Why didn’t management like him?
SquareTheRhombus@reddit
Are you my wife?
queefybean@reddit
I am married to no man
pixelunicorns@reddit
I work at a council, mine and others in the south East of England have had a couple rounds of lay offs due to changes in budget. Mainly last year and the beginning of this year.
Budget_Horror_350@reddit
I am back in the UK after being made redundant from a Swedish biotech startup in March.
Investors are getting jittery.
illogical_simu@reddit
Nobody mentioning the redundancy cap that came in earlier this month? Much cheaper to get rid of high earners now. Surprised how pitiful the new cap is really
Daveddozey@reddit
Statute redundancy now means anyone over average income gets less than they had before. If you’ve got 26 years of applicable work and are on 50k you get 19k rather than 25k
I didn’t know that, my employment contract gives me better redundancy terms, but that’s a terrible thing.
You’re being downvoted because Reddit thinks 20k a year is an “average wage”.
ZestycloseStyle88@reddit
What was the old cap?
illogical_simu@reddit
The cap actually increased, I misunderstood the .gov explanation. Its still capped at £751/week though which feels pretty bad considering how long you might be out of work
Imagine you're earning 100k a year (big dream) and you've been with the company for 10 years. You would get 9.4k redundancy pay + 10 weeks notice period
Daveddozey@reddit
Was capped at 719 a week. Again terrible for anyone at their height of earning.
The average wage for 40-49 year olds is £929 a week, so her laid off after 20 years and you’re getting 3 months to find an equivalent job.
illogical_simu@reddit
Yup. Insane ...
Quirky_Yak2181@reddit
i work for a huge pharmaceutical wholesaler and the company has already laid off 100+ employees this year to replace them with AI or to replace them with overseas workers who will do the same job for a fraction of the salary. Massive hoohaa in HR about it as apparently proper GDPR protocol wasn’t followed (not that the employees being made redundant know that)
It’s horrible how quickly you realise that you are just a number to a business, not a human being with a life or family to sustain.
Smart-Emu5459@reddit
Payroll tax is really starting to bite.
MixAway@reddit
Yes, because this Government seems hellbent on ruining the economy in every conceivable way it can.
superjambi@reddit
My consulting firm has made every junior person (sub 3-5yrs exp) either redundant or has not replaced the ones who've left. There will be a hiring/pipeline crisis in 5+ yrs for sure
lucyn-g@reddit
exact same with mine! Though I think they are still hiring juniors just in India 😔
Open-Butterfly-5288@reddit
There already was.
It seems like in the absence of growth, the meta is to abuse the workforce.
Jowster89@reddit
Our place has had some redundancy but sporadic rather than whole departments.
I do however have a bit of a tin foil hat conspiracy: they are not back filling, forcing people back to office, limiting pay increases, increasing expectations and generally making life at the company shit. This makes me believe they are trying to force people to leave rather than having to pay redundancy.
I've got 17 years and a very stubborn mentality, they can pay me to leave.
iameverybodyssecret@reddit
Big factory making cardboard that's been going for decades near me just shut down because it was bought up by an American company that closed it and laid everyone off.
Successful_Buy3825@reddit
Massively.
3 people in my family have been made redundant in the last 6 months, and I’m pretty certain I’m facing one soon. All experienced career professionals in the 70-80k range.
Getting a new job is an absolute bloodbath. When I was looking in 2024, I got 6 interviews from 50 applications in a month. Now, I’ve had 4 proper interviews after 220 applications in 7 months.
Careless_Soup_109@reddit
There was a guy on here on something like £80-90k, when questioned he didn't know about AI. The role was marketing or some such.
I didn't want to be harsh, but I kind of channeled that quote from the Office: 'yes, but you've let yourself to a bit, haven't you?'
SeventySealsInASuit@reddit
AI is not particularly efficient yet even if its likely to be in the near future. We are effectively firing people for not burning money because we think in two years time burning money will be the most useful skill.
RagerRambo@reddit
I mean I get your point but what do you suggest? AI is fairly new in the scheme of things, and expectation of use is dependent on industry. Also, people are not robots. You can't just click a button and learn new things in minutes. We have lives and want to enjoy it. Not constantly learning for fear of the rich tech billionaires throwing us on the scrapheap.
Careless_Soup_109@reddit
I'd agree if he was an entry level worker, but at the £90k level you'd likely be expected to identify changing trends and sector moves, etc.
Otherwise you'd be the labour equivalent of an ageing Edwardian aristocrat: everything around you is changing - except you.
RagerRambo@reddit
I don't think there's been any change in the workplace as rapid as AI. The first release of cgpt was end of 22. I want to say it had mass adoption in 24? The Edwardian aristocrat had much longer than 2-3 years, and the capital, to change.
NumeroRyan@reddit
220 roles applied for in that many months, are you just going for anything or putting time in to change your CV to match the role?
I’ve applied for 12 in 7 months, and haven’t had any interviews but I was being selective about what I went for.
jptoc@reddit
220 applications in 7 months is nothing. It's about 1000 working hours, assuming a 9-5 role, so it works out as about 4.5 hours per application. If anything they've probably been quite restrained in their search and applications.
Indie89@reddit
I did 1200 over 6 months 2.5 years ago and got two interviews, mix of high quality and volume applications. its brutal out there but something always comes along! part of the reason I had so few hits I think is because I was appearing overqualified on my cv when I was being less selective and was being instantly rejected. I was adapting but not well enough.
smedsterwho@reddit
I think this is the first time "something will come along" is not so true. AI is one of the few techs in history which doesn't create as many jobs as it replaces.
Indie89@reddit
I don't think we're quite there yet, over the next five years probably but I think most companies haven't quite worked out how to use it and make it profitable yet. I think the increase in cost of hiring is probably doing more short term damage this very moment. But the landscape is definitely changing rapidly.
Salt_Safety2234@reddit
As someone who never really applied for a job (other than making a phone call) this sounds utterly mental to me!
Successful_Buy3825@reddit
I work in accounting. 90% of roles are gatekept by recruitment agencies, who only give vague outlines at the start of the process. Most of the time I never even find out the name of the company I’ve applied for.
Maia478@reddit (OP)
I'm sorry to hear this. Wish you and your family the best of luck. In 2023, most of the redundancies happened in startups (it happened to me as well). Now I see the same in big companies, which is truly worrying.
GainsAndPastries@reddit
It shouldnt be funny but i applied for a job that two days later let me know they had made the position redundant and wouldnt be pursuing with my application.
Never been made redundant from a company i never worked for before.
VodkaLimesAndSoda@reddit
Yes. I work in the HR department of a South West-based company, and we’ve now gone through five separate redundancy processes in the past 18 months. We’re not talking huge amounts and in total maybe 5% of the company was affected. Without going into too much detail, it’s to do with AI and it causing a noticeable decline in revenue.
Hertstom@reddit
Uk biz confidence is the lowest on record due to inept government by twits with zero biz experience
quiet_control909@reddit
But we've had inept government by twits for decades!
cbawiththismalarky@reddit
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/redundancies
brasssica@reddit
So around the pre-covid level?
cbawiththismalarky@reddit
Yeah and there's a definite trend upwards but no huge spike
serena68uk@reddit
I think this will change by summer as of now around 56,000 jobs are in consultation for redundancy across the country, projected to reach 327,000 by the end of the year. Huge names like KPMG (1000 in consultation atm) BBC has 2000 in consultation, Asda has 1200 in consultation. That’s not considering companies about to go bust or collapse into administration (Claire’s most recently)
nwrnnr5@reddit
Out of curiosity, where do these figures for currently under consultation get collated?
Addy6489@reddit
Plus NHS England
cbawiththismalarky@reddit
well let's see at the end of the year, or we could go around claiming that "everyone i know " is being made redundant and just finish the conversation now
serena68uk@reddit
Just providing some facts as to what’s going on at the moment that won’t be in those figures yet. No need to be rude.
cbawiththismalarky@reddit
i wasn't being rude sorry if it came off that way, but these conversations (the whole thing not the one between me and you) are often doom laden and anecdotal so thank you for providing extra context, as you say there will be a spike at the end of the year and it could be larger than anything since 2016 not including the pandemic, but as the question was about right now i still think it's valid for me to post the actual statistics
serena68uk@reddit
Nobody said it wasn’t valid and thank you for apologising, it did come off rude.
RomHack@reddit
We're on our 4th round in just over a year so it feels like it to me. Marketing is being hit hard because of AI, though from my experience it's not that they're replacing with AI but a convenient excuse they can use AI as a way to fill the hole for the time being. UX has been in the gutter for years as there's no longer a consensus making products better is best. If it works it's usually considered good enough. Can't speak for the rest.
Intelligent_Put_3520@reddit
Lots of depot's being closed and run out of a central depot 50 miles away. Depot managers and supervisors who know the area inside out and which vehicle will be suitable for certain jobs are gone. The buildings are still open but nobody to delegate and fix problems as they happen in real time. Workers just call the central depot and wait for a response. It could take 10 minutes or all day for a solution.
Latter-Corner8977@reddit
Seeing swathes of contractors being cut loose and projects canned, with Americas activity in Iran causing financial instability being the reason cited
Maia478@reddit (OP)
That's unfortunate. Every time there's a bit of instability, some companies act like headless chickens. I've seen too many unnecessary job cuts throughout the years.
Salt_Error_6086@reddit
I feel like companies use instability and things like the advent of AI to cover the real motive which is cost-cutting and a palatable excuse to offshore jobs
Latter-Corner8977@reddit
Indeed, just got to weather the storm. Hope it’s short lived. Have one eye on the market and it seems a bit drier than earlier in the year
Still-Butterscotch33@reddit
UK insurance company. Hiring freeze end of last year. Pitter patter of redundancies starting to filter through despite leadership saying they werent happening. Seem to be non fee earning roles in the main office with titles where you have no idea what they do at the moment.
Serious-Top9613@reddit
Well, a friend of mine has been working at Tesco for years (has worked there since I’ve known her). And told me just before this past Christmas they were cutting some floor staff (she ended up job hunting in case she became one of the unlucky ones). And they also didn’t keep on any Christmas temps like they usually did.
Another friend got a job at river island back in November 2025, but the branch closed down in January 2026. She and her sister (the branch manager) are still job hunting together even now.
I was told to try retail myself when I was job hunting, but it doesn’t sound safe anymore.
MysteriousB@reddit
The worst thing with retail is zero hour contracts, no feeling of stability + now feeling you could be made redundant at any second. Horrible.
ThtGeorge_@reddit
Happening at my company... They've recently made redundant two teams below and outsourced them to India...
MetalWorking3915@reddit
I think its a combination of a few things.
A lag from covid where companies kept staff on.
Inflation and cost base
N.I changes and costs.
A believe that A.I will help them solve the productivity gap from redundancies but just wait until they realise the costs of A.I.
This has been building for a whil and the real question is going to bw whether this is a rejig in the market and economy or a start of something a lot worse.
PM_YOUR_MUGS@reddit
The AI point can't be understated. I work in AI, and claude costs alone have exploded month to month, and Anthropic still aren't profit making.
When that bubble bursts, the real state of the global economy is gonna be ugly I think
suzy_ko@reddit
Just got made redundant again by the same company within 2 years. First one I saw coming and managed to weasel my way into another part of the business. This one was out of the blue. Just received a 6% raise last month and was promised a promotion. I’m honestly devastated.
Drumwin@reddit
Pretty much my entire company of 1000+ collapsed a few months ago and we all got made redundant so I would say so
gerty88@reddit
Yes I’ve had several people I know being redundant
theflyingbarney@reddit
I’m an employment lawyer, and am seeing loads of redundancies in my work at the moment. Even during COVID they didn’t feel this common.
The other common factor - possibly because everyone and their nan is equipped with ChatGPT these days - is that the redundancies are way more bitter and brutal than I’m used to, people are fighting every single little point every step of the way.
Training-Party-9813@reddit
I tried to fight for every penny in my redundancy. American company said nope- nothing extra even with lots of years service. Just statutory and a nominal enhanced payment.
SnoopyLupus@reddit
Mine have.
Affectionate_You_858@reddit
From linkedin it seems really bad in the US as well
ben_vtr@reddit
Yep, I was made redundant a couple of weeks ago. Remote Uk based Clinical Project Coordinator for a massive CRO. Replacing loads of us with hires from India and Africa.
RainbowPenguin1000@reddit
I feel like they spiked about 3 years ago and just remained up there
AnonymousTimewaster@reddit
Hmmm what happened about 3 years ago 🤔
EyeAware3519@reddit
It seems like all businesses are just getting rid of as many people as they can and would rather go under than have a well compensated happy workforce. It's the reason a lot of businesses are pushing for return to office, they know a lot of staff will leave because of it and the ones who stay are going to be easier to exploit.
Whatiii@reddit
I would be quite happy to be in the office more. This is of course provided it is not me alone in the office where to contact those I work with I have to go onto a teams call in the open plan office. The calls are much better when I am at home and not having to wear a headset and deal with backgound noise the whole day.
Currently I am working with people where we would all be in the office together if they wanted to take 90 min commutes each way every day...
Unable-Object-8469@reddit
Yeah, this situation really reminds me of the 2008 financial crisis. I know it was a global event, but in my home country it started in a very similar way, people losing their jobs, business closing and students struggling to find work after finishing their studies.
Alternative_Job_3298@reddit
Went through a round on my company in December 25, 14 staff gone, another announced recently- upto 12 to go. Miserable times and may think about going a bit left field toa new industry even though I don't think I'll be affected again. Just fed up
MK2809@reddit
I think it's a combination of national insurance hikes and firms trying to save money by using AI instead of people
wales-bloke@reddit
In the corporation I work there's recently been a massive push to maximise use of AI.
It's pretty fucking obvious what the agenda is - It's being pitched as an 'evaluation period' but really it's a 'train the LLM & maximise its effectiveness' period.
As part of the push, people are being told that AI use takes priority over normal day to day work, and we will be assessed on the number of prompts we put through.
The company doesn't seem to give a single shit that deliverables are suffering, or how demoralising it all is to watch standards slide... it's an absolute overriding obsession about the bottom line. All the teams who've gone 'AI first' are deploying dogshit that breaks everyone else's integrations. But nobody in management is taking a blind bit of notice.
AI is peak capitalism; A race to the bottom. Profit above all. Quality and human connection is meaningless. Just blinking lights in a data centre somewhere, using up resources.
Nothing means anything anymore. We are merely bodies pushing buttons.
I reckon I have about a year, tops.
I hope the payout is decent.
pajamakitten@reddit
The risk of a recession caused by the war in Iran is not helping. Companies were already looking at ways to cut costs and the war has only made them more nervous.
Low-Ice777@reddit
I don’t know the figures but anecdotally it does feel that way. I got made redundant recently, along with 3 or 4 other close friends/family members all in different industries (one even in teaching!!). I’m in tech so I always expected it at some point, but even public sector and more traditional office roles are going through it.
I feel like just 5 years ago redundancy was just so rare in the UK - in my experience. I remember feeling so shocked if I heard of someone being made redundant. Now it’s like every other week I hear about a friend of a friend who’s been let go.
Theunluckyone7@reddit
It's only slightly higher than 5 years ago
Theunluckyone7@reddit
Everytime I hear of redundancies and struggles to find work, it's marketing.
AJMurphy_1986@reddit
I'm on my second on 5 years.......
Lot of friends had at least one recently
I_am_Reddit_Tom@reddit
There's been a sustained period of slow growth and increased taxes and employment regulation on businesses.
AutoModerator@reddit
Please help keep AskUK welcoming!
When replying to submission/post please make genuine efforts to answer the question given. Please no jokes, judgements, etc. If a post is marked 'Serious Answers Only' you may receive a ban for violating this rule.
Don't be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.