Job losses 'will form backdrop to election'

Monday, 15 February 2010 12:00 AM

By politics.co.uk staff

Labour's campaign for re-election will take place against a backdrop of continuing job losses, a depressing new report predicts today.

The survey of 700 employers by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) revealed a "substantial" fall in employment, especially in the public sector.

The number of job losses looks set to double, if the report is proved accurate. Around a quarter of employers are planning to drop staff.

The gloomy analysis combines the still tentative state of the jobs market with other factors, such as continued outsourcing. Employers look set to cut their staff by six per cent an average of in the next quarter.

"The UK jobs market is still on the ropes, with a public sector fall in employment now a reality as it feels the impact of the longest recession in modern times," said John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the CIPD

"Alongside the spectre of deep public spending cuts, the private sector will be dealing with ongoing concerns about productivity, wage costs and inflation."

The report comes on the same day as the Tories announce plans to allow public sector workers to set up co-operatives, and take more control over the structure of where they work.

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