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The boss of John Lewis has said the large number of over 50s who left the workforce during the pandemic is helping to fuel the current high levels of inflation across the UK.
Speaking to the BBC, Dame Sharon White said that the government must “think really hard” about how to get this demographic back into the workforce to help curb rising wage inflation. Inflation hit a new 40-year high with consumer price inflation reaching 9.4% in June, up from 9.1% in May.
White said she has “never seen” anything like the current economic environment and cautioned that the UK needed to avoid an extended period of low productivity and low rate of growth.
She told the outlet: “Regardless of what has happened coming out of Covid, if the labour market is that tight, if we continue to have far fewer people in work, looking for work – you’ve inevitably got more inflation and more wage inflation.
“I guess I would encourage…any government to really think much more about how to we encourage more people back into work. There’s not a business in the UK that’s not finding it very difficult to recruit at the moment because there are so many more jobs and so far fewer people looking for work. It’s a big issue.”
White also revealed trading has been tough over the most recent months with John Lewis Partnership, adding it had doubled its financial assistance fund for workers from £400,000 to £800,000.
White, who was previously a second permanent secretary at the Treasury before her jump into retail, said John Lewis is currently trying to balance how it ensures its partners are “able to cope with the cost of living whilst also thinking about the affordability of pay for the business” and added it is a dilemma the whole economy is also currently facing.
