UK labour market becoming less flexible

A new report from the World Bank reveals that the UK is slipping down a league table that reflects employment flexibility across the world.

The Doing Business report reveals that employing workers in the UK has become harder every year since 2007.

Although the UK Government says that protecting the UK's flexible labour market is one of its key economic priorities, the World Bank says that the country has slipped from 17th place in 2007 to 28th in 2009. By 2010 it will fall to 35th place.

Commenting on this alarming decline in UK competitiveness, Alistair Tebbit, Head of Employment Policy at the Institute of Directors (IoD), said the there was concern about the constant flow of new employment law from the Government and the impact that this has had on the UK's labour market.

He explained that since 1997 there had been more than 50 new employment regulations introduced.

This was bound to have a negative impact on competitiveness at some point and the World Bank's report now confirm that the labour market has been damaged by Government policy, Tebbit added.

Interim managers play a crucial role when it come to developing a flexible labour market and several groups that represent interims have been campaigning against the introduction of further employment legislation.

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