Human Times

UK Edition

7th January 2026

THE HOT STORY

Employers brace for job cuts

Employers are preparing for layoffs as payroll costs rise, according to the Institute of Directors' monthly business confidence survey. Headcount expectations fell from -17 in November to -21 in December, indicating a potential increase in unemployment. Anna Leach, chief economist at the IoD, commented: "Hiring freezes remain widespread, amidst concern over further cost increases." Business confidence remains low, with a score of -66, reflecting ongoing economic challenges. When asked what would have the greatest impact on business confidence in 2026, Leach said "top of the list were a lower tax burden and scaling back the proposed changes to employment law." She added: "More promisingly, improvements in regulation, trade deals with the EU, lower tax complexity and lower business costs were also high up the list – areas where the government has stated ambitions and where tangible progress could begin to rebuild confidence."

City AM

REMOTE WORKING

Water boss blames home workers for local water crisis

South East Water chief executive David Hinton has suggested that an increase in home working was partly to blame for leaving residents of Tunbridge Wells without water for nearly a fortnight in December. “Starting in 2021, we had an uptick in demand following Covid. We are a commuter-based area and a lot of our customers are spending a lot more time at home,” he told MPs on the environment select committee. “There were lifestyle changes and we’ve had some really extreme weather events over that period between 2021 and 2025. And that has meant the resilience of these particular areas has been stretched.”

WORKFORCE

NI teachers' unions welcome 4% pay offer

The Northern Ireland Department of Education and other teaching employers have put forward an offer of a 4% pay rise for teachers for 2025/26, backdated to September 1 2025. The employers say the offer "represents the best that can be achieved against the backdrop of increasing financial pressures." If accepted, teachers at the bottom of the pay scale will see their pay rise from £31,650 to £32,916. The Northern Ireland Teachers' Council, which represents the five teaching unions, responded positively to the offer, saying that while "teachers will have hoped for more, the NITC believes that this offer is the maximum possible in the current financial circumstances." Unions will now seek approval from their members for the deal.

BBC News

Met staff to strike

Metropolitan Police staff are set to strike for six days from January 19 due to a pay dispute. Around 175 Unite union members, including call handlers and technicians, are involved. Unite claims an offered pay increase is inferior to the 4.2% rise received by other police staff. The Met Police, which argues it cannot afford the £1,250 award due to a £260m budget gap, says it aims to mitigate the strike's impact by reallocating officers to critical roles.

London Evening Standard

HIRING

Waitrose to create 550 new jobs

Waitrose plans to hire 550 staff for its new warehouse in Bristol, which is set to open in early 2027. The distribution centre, managed by DHL, will recruit 480 warehouse staff and 80 drivers. The facility aims to enhance delivery efficiency for the 50 existing shops in the south-west and support future expansion. The warehouse will be Waitrose's most sustainable, featuring 1,200 solar panels.

Daily Mail

The Daily Telegraph

Power grid jobs boom as UK energy shifts away from fossil fuels

Electricity network owners in the UK are hiring at their fastest pace since the 1950s, reflecting a surge in activity as part of the transition away from fossil fuels.

Financial Times

REMUNERATION

Clifford Chance partner earns £7.17m

Law firm Clifford Chance's highest-earning partner received a pay rise of nearly 20% to £7.17m, according to the firm's financial report for the year ending April 30, 2025. The total profit share for full-equity partners increased by 12% to £872m, with the number of full equity partners rising by nearly 5% to 543. The firm's overall lawyer headcount also grew by 3% to 2,859. Despite these figures, the highest partner's earnings are still below those at some American firms.

The Times

WORKPLACE

London office shortage forces big companies to stay put

Top companies including Accenture and EY are abandoning searches for new London offices as a post-Brexit building slump and a sharp rise in fit-out costs persuade tenants to stay put.

Financial Times

INTERNATIONAL

US Chamber gets fast-tracked appeal in $100,000 H-1B fee dispute

A US appeals court has agreed to expedite an appeal regarding President Donald Trump's $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for hiring skilled foreign workers. The US Chamber of Commerce argued that a swift review is crucial to protect employers' rights ahead of the H-1B visa lottery in March. "Those employers' ability to participate in the H-1B program this year therefore hinges on the outcome of this appeal; without relief by March, it will be too late,” the Chamber said. The appeal follows a December 24 decision by a district judge affirming the fee's legality. The Trump administration has said the H1-B program has been abused by US employers who seek to replace American workers with lower-paid foreign workers.

U.S. News

Oil industry makes the case for Maduro's successor

Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as acting president of Venezuela in Caracas on Jan. 5. Bloomberg reports that executives, lawyers, and investors tied to the oil industry made the case for Rodríguez as Nicolás Maduro's successor following his ouster, observing that as an oil minister herself, she would be best placed to guide the US plan to optimise Venezuela's oil production. However, the biggest US oil majors were not among Rodriguez's advocates. A spokesperson for Chevron, the only major US oil company licensed to operate in Venezuela, said it “had no advance notice of the recent operation and did not engage in any discussions with administration officials regarding governance for a post-Maduro Venezuela.”

Bloomberg

Some parts of Louvre stay closed as staff resume strike

The Louvre museum in Paris opened on Monday but some parts stayed closed as staff resumed their strike. Staff had convened earlier in the day to decide whether to resume the rolling strike to protest against pay and working conditions. Unions say employees at the world's most visited museum are overworked and mismanaged. They are urging more hiring, pay increases, and better use of how the Louvre's money is spent.

Reuters

The Local

OTHER

Reading decline 'threatens UK's national security'

UK education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has warned that declining reading skills among children could jeopardise national security. She highlighted the vulnerability of youngsters to Russian disinformation, warning: "A decline of literacy could even have an impact on our security as a country." To combat this, the Department for Education is collaborating with the National Literacy Trust for a campaign aimed at making 2026 the national year of reading. Currently, only one-third of children enjoy reading, a decrease from 50% two decades ago.

Mirror.co.uk

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