Save our Saturday jobs! Dragons’ Den star Theo Paphitis urges Burnham to make it easier
Dragons’ Den star Theo Paphitis has urged Andy Burnham to make it easier for retailers to offer young people Saturday jobs amid growing concerns over youth unemployment.
The retail entrepreneur, whose empire includes lingerie brand Boux Avenue, stationery firm Ryman and homewares chain Robert Dyas, is the latest big name to call for action to stem the jobs crisis among young people.
Official figures show more than a million people aged 16 to 24 are classed as not in employment, education or training (NEETs).
Employers under pressure from higher minimum wages and national insurance contributions as well as soaring business rate bills and energy costs are struggling to hire more.
And a raft of new workers’ rights being implemented by Labour is adding to their difficulties.
It has added up to an extra £6.5bn in employment costs being heaped onto the sector over the past year, industry estimates suggest.
At risk: Theo Paphitis has warned that ‘entry-level, flexible jobs that give people their first experience of work’ are under threat due to high costs and looming red tape.
Writing for the Daily Mail, Paphitis – who started working at 14 – said: ‘For generations, the Saturday job – and the shop floor that so often came with it – gave young people their first real taste of work. They certainly did for me. If we want the next generation to get the same start, we need to make it easier for businesses to create them.’
Retailers’ capacity to hire is ‘under pressure’ as firms have faced challenges from ‘every direction’ over the past year, including disruption in the Middle East and geopolitical uncertainty ‘making it harder to plan, invest and hire’, he added.
‘What shopkeepers need is a policy environment that helps shoulder the pressure, not pile on extra for good measure,’ Paphitis said.
The additional costs that employers face have ‘consequences’, Paphitis said, including that bosses ‘inevitably become more cautious about hiring’ and ‘have little choice’ but to hire older people with more experience or do the jobs themselves.
It is ‘the entry-level, flexible jobs that give people their first experience of work’ which are currently most at risk, he warned.
He said: ‘If an Andy Burnham government is serious about raising living standards and giving every young person the opportunity to succeed, we should be creating more of these opportunities, not fewer.
‘A ladder into work has to start somewhere. For too many young people today, that first rung is out of reach. It should not be.’
Paphitis echoed concerns expressed by the other retail bosses over the Employment Rights Act, warning that if it is executed poorly, young people will miss out.
‘If legislation makes it harder or more expensive to take a chance on someone with no experience, the people who lose out will not be retailers. It will be the young people looking for that first foot in the door,’ he said.
Under the act, firms must offer a guaranteed number of hours to regular workers but retailers say they need flexibility or will be forced to recruit fewer people.
Paphitis’s remarks follow a plea this week by Alex Baldock, the outgoing boss of Currys and chief executive-designate of Boots, for Burnham to reverse Rachel Reeves’s National Insurance raid on employers.
Baldock urged the next Prime Minister to ‘make it less risky, less expensive and less difficult to hire people in large numbers.’
If Burnham is serious about raising living standards, Britain needs more Saturday jobs – not fewer
By Theo Paphitis, owner of Ryman, Robert Dyas & Boux Avenue
One of the greatest things this country offers young people is the chance to earn their first wage. Not because of the money itself, but because of everything that comes with it: responsibility, confidence, independence and experience. For generations, the Saturday job – and the shop floor that so often came with it – gave young people their first real taste of work. They certainly did for me. If we want the next generation to get the same start, we need to make it easier for businesses to create them.
I was fourteen when I got my first proper job. Weekends at the Wimpy Burger Bar in Chapel Market, Islington. About £5 a shift, plus a smidge more in tips if you were lucky. I started as the pot washer, but what I really wanted was to be out front serving customers. So I worked hard, turned up on time and got stuck into every shift until, about three months later, I got my chance.
For a teenager still figuring out who he was, the lessons I learned from that first job were everything.
Eventually I found my way to retail, and never looked back. One in five Brits also say their first job was in retail. Shopkeepers have always taken people with no experience and given them their first opportunity. Many stay in the sector for their whole careers.
A colleague in one of my businesses, Ryman, who started on the shop floor is now managing director. That is not an accident. It is something retail is incredibly proud of.
But that ability to help is under pressure – youth unemployment is over 16 per cent, with 735,000 young people aged 16 to 24 out of work. At the same time, retail employment stands at a record low – 398,000 fewer jobs than a decade ago.
Behind each of these figures is a Saturday job not offered, a weekend shift not completed and the first rungs on the employment ladder no longer there.
Over the past year, us retailers have faced pressure from every direction – disruption in the Middle East, shipping costs through the roof, and uncertainty making it harder to plan, invest and hire. What shopkeepers need is a policy environment that helps shoulder the pressure, not pile on extra for good measure.
The BRC estimates over the past 14 months, us shopkeepers have absorbed an additional £6.5bn in employment costs. Retail believes in playing its part to fund better services. But in an industry where margins are often only a few pence in every pound, these costs have consequences.
When costs rise, businesses inevitably become more cautious about hiring. It is not simply wages employers have to consider, but the time and investment needed to train and supervise someone taking their first steps into work. Many businesses have little choice but to do the work themselves or recruit someone with more experience instead.
The roles most at risk from cost rises are often the entry-level, flexible jobs that give people their first experience of work.
Let’s not remove that all-important starting line.
That is why implementation of the Employment Rights Act matters so much. Stronger protections and fair treatment at work are objectives retail firmly stands behind. We want to work with government to get this right.
But if legislation makes it harder or more expensive to take a chance on someone with no experience, the people who lose out will not be retailers. It will be the young people looking for that first foot in the door.
A ladder into work has to start somewhere. For too many young people today, that first rung is out of reach. It should not be. We should be making it easier to climb, not harder.
If an Andy Burnham government is serious about raising living standards and giving every young person the opportunity to succeed, we should be creating more of these opportunities, not fewer. At a time when more than one million young people are not in education, employment or training, protecting these first steps into work has never mattered more.
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