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Workers Want Certainty As Unemployment Rises



Workers would prefer to earn less if they had guaranteed hours, a new major survey has discovered. When considering a job, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) is the least important factor, along with benefits and perks.


The study was carried out by Berry Recruitment, a national recruiter with branches across the country.


It employs mainly temporary workers in the hospitality, industrial, office/professional, driving, construction, rail and IT sectors. In the wide-ranging survey workers also said that the salary remains the most important reason for deciding whether they apply for a role – with benefits/perks and culture barely registering.


When asked what the most valuable benefits an employer could offer were, training and funded courses were the most popular – with team events and activities deemed the least valuable.


Lee Gamble, managing director of Berry Recruitment which is headquartered in St Albans, Herts, said:

“We carried out the survey in order to help employers understand what workers want and value. Respondents said they would prefer to earn a little less in exchange for guaranteed hours."

“In the survey, more than half of those questioned said their personal lives are regularly disrupted by last minute changes – it is a major driver of dissatisfaction and turnover. We go as far as saying that predictability is the new perk."


“Results show that workers don’t feel valued because of grand gestures or flashy freebies, but by clarity, consistency, fairness and support. When asked about the most valued benefits, training and funded courses are most important, along with flexible working. Least important are team events and activities."


“When deciding whether to apply for a job, the most important things are pay and work-life balance. DEI and benefits and perks are of very low importance. The results vary between sectors and age groups but there are some takeaways for employers."


“Transparency, stability, more certainty of hours, better onboarding processes, improved communication, investment in training and progression opportunities are all things that can help improve retention and foster loyalty."


“For many years we have had a candidate-driven market because of the lack of workers. But we are now seeing unemployment rise and this might be why the desire for guaranteed hours is so important. Choice of employment opportunities is narrowing so certainty becomes more important for workers.”


The unemployment rate rose to a near five-year high of 5.2 per cent for the period of October to December 2025.


The results of the survey that polled 444 workers across the country in December can be found here:


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A leading independent brewer has partnered with a student run microbrewery to produce 500 casks of the students’ popular stout for this year’s Wetherspoon Spring Beer Festival.


Stu Brew - Europe’s first student-led brewery, based at Newcastle University – travelled to St Austell Brewery’s headquarters in Cornwall in February to scale up production of Exam Room Tears (5.5% ABV), its rich maple and pecan stout that has become a firm favourite in the North East.


The collaboration was sparked by Stu Brew’s long-standing presence in the Students’ Union-run Wetherspoons on campus, where it operates a permanent keg line and frequently supplies guest cask lines. After Wetherspoons invited the student brewery to take part in its national festival, it requested 500 casks of Exam Room Tears - a volume that would have taken Stu Brew more than a year to produce on its own brewing kit.


To help meet demand, Dr Chris O’Malley, Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering and Head Brewer at Stu Brew, approached St Austell Brewery’s Head Brewer, Georgina Young, after previously meeting her while judging together for the British Guild of Beer Writers. St Austell Brewery stepped in to support the students, hosting them at its historic Victorian brewery in Cornwall where its iconic beers including Tribute and Proper Job are brewed.


Georgina Young, Head Brewer at St Austell Brewery, said:

“Working with the Stu Brew team was a great experience. Exam Room Tears is a fantastic cask beer and helping them bring it to festival scale felt like a brilliant way to support the next generation of brewers.”

In addition to brewing the stout, Stu Brew made the most of their visit by creating a brown ale on St Austell Brewery’s small-batch kit ‘just for fun’.


For students Kypros Lakovou and Will Tyson, who travelled down with Dr O’Malley, the trip marked their first-ever visit to St Austell Brewery - and to Cornwall itself.


Will said:

“Every brewery is unique, but St Austell really stood out - it was this maze of history, with different layers of the site built up over generations. You could see the heritage all around you while still watching a modern brewery in action. It was a special environment to learn in, and really interesting to see how different brewing on a much larger scale was.”

Exam Room Tears is available in Wetherspoons nationally across the beer festival, which takes place between March 4th-15th.


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