Employment, overdrafts, consumer spending and pensions

Employers have responded to the new National Living Wage by increasing prices or reducing profits rather than cutting jobs, according to a survey from the Resolution Foundation.

The wage, which requires employers to pay staff aged 25 and over at least £7.20 an hour, was introduced in April. This report is the first snapshot of how firms have reacted to the New Living Wage. It comes after the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted it would lead to 60,000 job losses by 2020. Graduates Meanwhile, The Times reports that top companies are poised to slash graduate recruitment in the wake of Brexit as the famed ‘milk round’ turns sour. Law firms, banks and other major businesses are expected to cancel or cut back jobs for graduates as an easy way of saving money as they worry about the short-term future, recruitment experts have warned. Graduate recruitment plummeted by nearly 25 per cent over a two-year period after the 2008 recession and the same could happen again, experts say.