74% of businesses expect the Employment Rights Act (ERA) to increase employment costs, 55% expect workplace conflict to increase, and 37% plan to hire fewer permanent staff.

Nearly three quarters (74%) of businesses believe their employment costs will increase because of ERA measures. 17% expect costs to rise ‘to a large extent’, 40% believe it will rise ‘to some extent’, and 18% ‘to a small extent’, according to the CIPD’s latest Labour Market Outlook.

The survey of 2,000 businesses also assessed the impact of above inflation rises in the national living wage (NLW) set to increase as of 1 April 2026.