The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has released a survey on how tax is affecting unemployment. More than half of the firms responding say that UK taxes have prevented them taking on more staff. National Insurance, in particular, is a tax on jobs and the FSB recommend a cut in the rate.
Having more people on the unemployment rolls won't help the public finances and will, at least partly, offset the revenue gain from pushing the rate up in the first place. Over time our uncompetitive tax system will undermine our prosperity and government revenue, as British businesses can't grow as much and international investment avoids high-tax Britain (as I blogged about yesterday).