“Rigid, rule-based regulation is preventing businesses from employing more people,” claimed shadow chancellor Ed Balls at the Institute of Directors (IoD) conference last week as he came to blows with chancellor George Osborne over how to boost employment.

“I’ve never known a time where the political world and the business world have been so far apart for so long,” he added, in reference to polarising views on what needs to be done to encourage more investment in people and skills.

His words coincided with the first anniversary of the coalition government and reflect a popular view that too little is being done to drive job creation.

A report commissioned by the Association of Accounting Technicians, published last week, found that more than half of graduates from the class of 2011 will end up in low-paid roles where no degree is needed six months after graduating a figure that has increased by 10 percentage points in the past five years.

Meanwhile, the waves of public sector workers about to find themselves out of a job face an even more difficult time. Two pieces of research last week discovered that private sector employers, in particular SMEs, are reluctant to hire from the public sector, believing such employees to be less dynamic and driven than private sector workers.

As the Commons rises for its Whitsun recess next week, does the government’s performance over the past 12 months mean it should face redundancy itself? It has certainly had a verbal warning from business. April’s abolition of the Default Retirement Age, the extension of paternity rights and cap on immigration from outside the EU are among the lead balloon regulations.

Meanwhile, as far as skills are concerned, youth unemployment, economic stagnation and the massive increase in university tuition fees give rise to a ‘failure to meet agreed objectives’ in the annual appraisal.

However, the news last week that the government is to review employment law, including whether to reduce the consultation period for collective redundancies, has gone some way to restoring faith. Add in the reduction in corporation tax and u-turn on employers’ national insurance rise and it appears the coalition may have pulled itself back from the brink of redundancy.

Of course, we still need to see the outcome of all the consultations. Nothing the government does will help it retain its job at the next election if the economy does not pick up dramatically.

But, for the time being, business is letting it get on with the job in the hope that communication improves, performance meets standards and it becomes better aligned with business needs.

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