Redundancy plans by employers have surged to the highest level since the pandemic according to stark new figures that underline Britain's growing jobs crisis under Labour.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said firms were giving notices of planned lay-offs at a rate of 8,900 a week, 76 per cent up on the same period last year.

Its figures were compiled using forms companies are obliged to submit to the insolvency service if they plan to make 20 or more redundancies over coming weeks.

They suggest that Britain's growing jobs crunch is only set to worsen as bosses carry through on these plans.

Already, unemployment has risen to 5 per cent as gloom descends across the economy.

Companies battered by Labour's tax hikes, minimum wage increases and workers' rights rules are now facing a further squeeze as Donald Trump's Iran war pushes up costs.

The resultant inflation fears have pushed up borrowing rates, adding to the pain for firms.

Tory business spokesman Andrew Griffith said: 'This sign of impending redundancies is more bad news for a jobs market broken by Labour's tax hikes and 1970s-style employment laws.

'Everything points to ministers needing to change course without delay.'

The potential redundancies figure was the weekly average for the four weeks to 17 May. It showed a sharp 24 per cent increase from just a week earlier.

It has not been higher since December 2020 when Covid-19 lockdowns were crushing the economy.

The figure has more than doubled from less than 4,000 at the time Labour came to power in 2024.

It came a day after separate ONS data showed the number of 16-24 year olds not in employment, education or training had risen to more than a million for the first time since the end of 2013.

Critics of Labour's anti-business policies say that it is young people who are bearing the brunt of Britain's jobs crunch.

Earlier this week, Next boss Simon Wolfson said they were causing a 'dramatic fall' in entry-level job opportunities as national insurance and minimum wage hikes had pushed up the cost of such roles to employers by 14 per cent.

And Stephen Burns, boss of ten-pin bowling operator Hollywood Bowl, said it was now hiring staff with experience over younger people because of cost increases.

Yesterday, figures from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) showed that hiring intentions by UK employers were falling.

REC chief executive Neil Carberry said: 'Most pessimism around all short- and medium-term hiring is now coming from small businesses who will be feeling the squeeze of government-imposed cost rises most.'