BRITAIN is on the brink of a recession with the government “asleep at the wheel” as new analysis today reveals employment is falling in the majority of country’s industries.

The TUC warned “skyrocketing” interest rate hikes will put thousands more jobs at risk after it found 120,000 were lost in 11 of the 20 main industry groups in the three months ending June.

Urging the Tories to stop “hiding behind the Bank of England,” the union body said the rate hikes have been a key driver behind the job losses – both pushing up costs for businesses and reducing the amount people have to spend in their local economies.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “The government needs to deliver strong, shared growth, rather than an economy that is stagnating or shrinking.

“Ministers must stop hiding behind the Bank of England and come up with a credible plan for boosting jobs and living standards.

“With the country teetering on the brink of recession, the last thing we need is another hike in interest rates.

“This will just heap further misery on households and businesses and put many thousands more jobs and livelihoods at risk.

“Setting us on course for another economic shock is reckless — not responsible.”

Its analysis of official statistics found that job numbers are contracting in 11 of the main 20 industry groups.

Accommodation and food had the largest losses with 34,000 jobs gone.

Second was wholesale and retail with 27,000 followed by construction with 17,000 job losses.

GMB national secretary Andy Prendergast told the Morning Star: “These figures are extremely worrying and show that the government has been asleep at the wheel.

“Working people across the country are suffering from the impact of high energy prices and spiralling interest rates. 

“Businesses and unions have long been raising the alarm that these are impacting jobs and growth — but ministers have been too absorbed with infighting and scandals to act. 

“This needs to be a wake-up call that action must be taken if we are to avoid a full-blown recession.”

Rico Wojtulewicz, of the National Federation of Builders, told the Morning Star that he expected most of the construction job losses to be in small and medium-sized companies that directly employ tradespeople.

He blamed the Tory decision to scrap mandatory local planning targets and a Covid planning backlog for businesses not having the cash reserves to retain and train new staff.

The TUC’s analysis was based on real time information on payrolled employees from HMRC PAYE data published by the Office for National Statistics alongside the monthly labour market statistics.

A spokesman said the fact that the total number of jobs across the economy as a whole has increased by 30,000 over the three-month period “shouldn’t mask the problems the majority of UK industries are facing.”

The union body also highlighted separate figures from the Office for National Statistics’s Labour Force Survey which showed that unemployment increased by 274,000 between April and May — the steepest rise on the month since modern records began in 1992.

It comes as the Bank of England is expected to increase rates to 5.25 per cent tomorrow.