The Isle of Wight has suffered one of the steepest percentage drops in employment in England over the past year, ranking as the worst area outside London for job losses, new figures show.
Latest data reveals that the number of payrolled employees on the Isle of Wight fell from 53,020 in May 2024 to 51,728 in May 2025 – a decline of 1,292 jobs, or 2.44%.
This places the Isle of Wight among the top 5 worst-affected areas in England for percentage decline, with only Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Haringey and Brent faring worse – all of which are London boroughs.
Across the country, the median percentage change was around -0.76%, demonstrating how the Isle of Wight has been hit harder than most local authorities. The Local Authority figures come from Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) published by the Office for National Statistics.
The data shows that between May and December 2024, the drop in PAYE employees was relatively limited, but from December onwards, the figures fell more steeply, mirroring the series of significant job loss announcements on the Island.
At the end of last year, it was confirmed that 300 jobs would be lost at Vestas, followed by Wyld in Newport closing its doors on Boxing Day. Then, into the new year, Hovertravel cut 17 staff roles, and Kingswood in Bembridge shut down after its parent company went into administration.
More bad news followed with Snows Isle of Wight closing for good in February due to economic challenges, while Liz Earle announced the closure of its Ryde Head Office. Cowes-based GTI Glazing also went bust, and most recently, it was reported that Ametek is looking to shut its Isle of Wight factory.
Earlier this week, Island Echo reported that the National Trust is looking to cut a number of jobs on the Isle of Wight in the coming weeks, citing National Insurance and National Living Wage increases as the reason. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has also announced this week that it is looking to axe 17 local jobs.
Responding to the news, Richard Quigley, MP for Isle of Wight West, has told Island Echo:
“First of all, my heart goes out to anyone in that position. It’s not a nice place to be, to lose your job – it’s very worrying for people.
“I’m not going to apologise for the government increasing the minimum wage so that people have a chance of keeping a roof over their head and food on the table. In our business, we use the Real Living Wage because it helps us avoid all of that nonsense.
“We do have to worry about the Island being an attractive place to do business. Vestas’ job losses were a change of strategy from offshore to onshore. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is also going through a strategy change. But we can’t just make excuses – we have to make the Isle of Wight look attractive for people to come and work. Our strapline is that it’s a great place to work and live – not just live.
“We need to build our domestic market too. Some of the businesses you mentioned do rely on that. We need to get more money back into people’s pockets and make the Isle of Wight an attractive place to work, not just for tourism. Tourism is very important, but we need to get the size of our economy where it includes tourism – and then add tourism on top.
“My job as an MP in government is to make sure the whole country benefits from the industrial strategy, and that’s part of the conversation I’ve been having with the Secretary of State for Business. We’ve got to make sure that strip of water between us and the mainland isn’t a barrier.
“The college and other education providers have offered some great training opportunities that aren’t university-based. That’s how we start building our home market and make it a really good place for people to set up businesses.
“I take these figures very seriously, and my office does too. It just makes me even more determined to push on with the plan I outlined earlier.”**
Not to worry, only another 4 more years of this
Labour Government, by then the world will be entering
the New World Order.
“You will own nothing and be happy”
Lol
The job losses are only in the private sector,
all the public sector jobs are safe.
There are still “too many” NHS and Council employees
still being allowed to shirk from home since the pandemic.
Time to get rid of the unnesseccary clutter from the
Public sector and reduce taxes etc to help the persons
working or losing their jobs in the private sector.
What happened to “we are all in this together ballsh*t”!
So, with the job losses in the private sector, coupled with your idea of reducing the ‘excess’ jobs in the public sector….who might be left to contribute to the tax pot necessary to provide the services the people here need, hmm? Please learn to think things through, this is getting embarrassing.
Classic labour, literally no answers or solutions to the problem in their response, just waffle ♂️
Also, wage increase to keep roofs over people’s heads yet that is the reason why many businesses are suffering and cutting jobs which results in people losing their homes because of the NI increases, it’s all about risk mitigation, risk is too high, cut jobs, everyone said this when it was being announced, so frustrating
Classic labour, literally no answers or solutions to the problem in their response, just waffle ♂️
Also, wage increase to keep roofs over people’s heads yet that is the reason why many businesses are suffering and cutting jobs which results in people losing their homes because of the NI increases, it’s all about risk mitigation, risk is too high, cut jobs, everyone said this when it was being announced, so frustrating
Let’s get real, there will be no real investment on this Island until this stretch of water becomes a serious reliable proposition for business and employees alike. This is first and foremost an Island, transport has too be reliable, viable and affordable, it currently is none of these. If it was we would still face the same economic pressures as the rest of the Country.
These figures prove we are at a major disadvantage, I do not favour a fixed link and quite simply it will never happen. the rest of the Country does not need the Island, however the Island needs the rest of the Country. Real prosperity on the Island can come from the Islands best asset and that is being an Island.
It is too expensive to cross the Solent, and the Island has fallen into dereliction, we have a chicken and egg situation. There is no serious money on the Island to pull this around, the money will only come from across the Solent, that is where the real solution is, private investment injected here from big business, or private investors who can work with Island Council before it’s too late.
Agree. One way or another, the stretch of water will always put a cost differential on the Island.
There’s been a lot of investment in the Portsmouth-Fishbourne service, with good mainland road and rail connection, but the vehicle fares are recogniseably far too high, and in recent times at least the services on all routes seem to have become unreliable – either cutting overheads with aging ships or no reserve crews. Not good news to encourage industrial investment or re-vitalise the tourist trade.
A fixed link won’t help. A bridge would have to be at least partially funded over time with tolls, and to maintain shipping access to Portsmouth and Southampton a bridge would have to to cross somewhere West of Cowes. Building new road access to the M27 would add very substantial further cost.
So maybe stuck with ferries – but needing recognition by central Government that this crossing is a National strategic service that needs DFT recognition and support.
What does Quigley know about job losses, it is his bloody government and Reeves and Starmer in particular who are responsible, if they hadn’t hiked up employer NI then some of these jobs may of been saved. Quigley is a liar, don’t listen to any of the Liebour party. Hypocrites, and just lining there own pockets at the expense of the working person.
Mr Quigley will hopefully join the ranks of the unemployed very soon
This is what happens when an island suffers from Apathy Syndrome. Relying on the Slow Boat to China Ferries does nothing for businesses and jobs. A Bridge or Tunnel would have alleviated such problems and the island could have been a thriving area, instead of being likened to places like Beirut with its broken towns and villages.
Please tell us where this bridge or tunnel would enter the island? It’s all well and good having an idea without actually looking at the consequences of that, we had one road closed one-way for 7 weeks and look at the havoc that caused, do you honestly think a constant flow of traffic coming in to one area of the island wouldn’t put us at a stand still!? The ferries aren’t the problem the prices are, it’s private companies charging through the roof then also getting money from our tax payers to fund things. A bridge or tunnel would never be logical…will also end up like the itchen, they’ll use our money to build it, then tell us we only need to pay to use it for a few years ,then decades later everyone is paying stupid prices just to get over the bridge/tunnel. Please use some common sense.
This is why we shouldn’t vote for Labour, Rachel Reeves shows how “pressure she is and cried on live” like literally that’s just the tactic to make sure us brits to show and how sorry we feel for her **not really** if this keeps continuing…we all gunna be poor in the future which is so embarrassing…