Since Rachel Reeves entered No 11,growth has stalled, debt has soared, companies have crumbled and business confidence has drained away. We’ve witnessed the winter fuel shambles, welfare cuts rebellion, farmers’ inheritance tax fiasco, pensions inheritance tax raid and £66billion of new taxation. Butas I wrote on Sunday, her very worst decision was hiking employers’ National Insurance by £26billion in her maiden Budget.

Reeves assumed businesses would quietly absorb the cost. They won’t. The Office for Budget Responsibility warned that three-quarters of it will ultimately fall on working people through lower wages and higher prices. At the same time, Reeves has pushed up the National Living Wage well above inflation. Twice. This further drives of employer costs.

Take Tesco, Britain’s largest private employer, with almost 350,000 staff. The combined NI and wage increases will cost it £430million a year. It will cover that by cutting costs and hiking food prices – and every supermarket is doing the same. Just what we need as the cost-of-living crisis rages.

If giants like these feel the strain, imagine the impact on smaller firms. Today we got confirmation of the damage Reeves has done as unemployment jumped to a five-year high in the three months to December.

For years, Britain’s great economic strength was its flexible labour market. Hiring and firing were relatively straightforward. That gave employers confidence to take risks on new staff. It set us apart from much of over-regulated Europe. Then came Reeves.

When Labour won in July 2024, unemployment stood at 4.1%. It’s now climbed to 5.2%, the highest since early 2021, when the pandemic had the UK in lockdown. As accountancy group PwC puts it: “Payrolled employment is falling, unemployment is edging higher and redundancies are picking up.”

This is happening just as artificial intelligence threatens millions of jobs, especially for entry-level workers. Life is already hellish for youngsters seeking work as vacancies shrink. Labour chose this time to make hiring them dramatically more expensive.

That’s not the only way that Labour is hammering the jobs market. Angela Rayner is pitching in too. Her upcoming Employment Rights Bill is set to add another £5billion in costs, making it harder to dismiss underperforming staff and further deterring firms from taking a chance on new hires.

Labour childishly views private sector bosses as evil capitalists to be stamped out. Even at the cost of countless jobs.

Britain’s flexible jobs market was once a huge competitive advantage. Not anymore. The harshest consequences will fall on the young, School leavers and heavily indebted graduates facing a shrinking jobs market just as technology reshapes the world of work. Our children and grandchildren will bear the scars for life.

Young voters once flocked to Labour. When they realise it’s wrecked their life prospects, they won’t forget. And come the next election, they won’t forgive.