Private companies wary of hiring public sector workers

Monday, 21 February 2011 12:00 AM

By politics.co.uk staff

A survey of 500 private companies has found that more than half would not hire public sector employees set to lose their jobs due to government spending cuts.

The survey, conducted by Barclays Corporate and the Financial Times, paints a bleak portrait for public workers' job prospects in the next year.

Over half of the private businesses, 52 per cent, said they did not think redundant public sector workers would have the right skills for their company.

A total of 57 per cent of the 500 companies said they were not interested in hiring former state employees.

The results will come as a blow to the government, which has argued public sector job cuts will be offset by hiring in the private sector.

More than half of the companies surveyed expected to create jobs this year, but three-quarters said this would not be enough to compensate for the public sector job losses.

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