Rubbish Check
Daily Mail Money · 15 September 2026
source“Job losses under Labour soar past 200,000 as employers crushed by tax and wage hikes”
R6/ 10
Spin-heavy
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates the Daily Mail's claim that job losses have "soared past 200,000" as employers are "crushed by tax and wage hikes" a 6/10, because the ONS reported a 26,000 monthly payroll fall while the causal claim about tax and wage policy comes from business groups and the opposition, not the statistics agency itself.
The Verdict
Spin-heavy. The underlying number, a 26,000 monthly payroll drop and 216,000 cumulative fall since June 2024, is real. But the headline does two things the ONS release itself does not do: it swaps the actual new data point (26,000) for a cumulative figure measured from a politically chosen start date, and it states "crushed by tax and wage hikes" as settled fact when the article's own text attributes that explanation to business groups, a Tory shadow chancellor and a free-market think tank, not to the ONS.
What actually happened
The ONS reported that UK payrolled employment fell by 26,000 last month, taking the cumulative decline since June 2024 to 216,000. Job vacancies fell to 702,000, the lowest outside the pandemic period since 2014. The article layers in reaction from the Conservative shadow chancellor, the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Institute of Directors, all attributing the trend to national insurance rises, minimum wage increases and new workers' rights rules.
Key facts
- Payroll numbers fell by 26,000 in the latest month, per the article's ONS attribution.
- Cumulative payroll job losses since June 2024 (pre-Labour) total 216,000.
- Job vacancies stand at 702,000, the lowest non-pandemic reading since 2014.
- Youth unemployment (16-24) is 16.4%, more than triple the 4.9% rate for the wider workforce.
- The "tax and wage hikes" causal claim is sourced to Andrew Griffith (Tory shadow chancellor), the IEA's Valentin Boboc and the IoD's Alex Hall-Chen, not the ONS release itself.
What to watch for
- Whether the 26,000 monthly payroll estimate holds up: HMRC-based payroll figures are provisional and are typically revised in following months, sometimes substantially.
- Whether the next jobs report brings any voice countering the tax/wage-hike causation, since this piece runs opposition and business-lobby quotes exclusively with no government or independent-economist rebuttal.
- Whether the Budget response cited by the IoD and IEA materialises, and whether coverage then credits or blames policy change for any shift in the trend.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
