by René Lavanchy
Unions have reacted with dismay this week to a survey predicting a “bleak quarter ahead for the public sector”.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which spoke to 700 employers about their recruitment plans for the next quarter, said there would be a strong overall trend to cut jobs among public employers, compared with a slight trend towards hiring in private firms.
Public bodies planning redundancies outnumber those planning to retain all staff or hire more by over 30 per cent. Defence and public administration look set to be particularly hard hit, with a balance of 62 per cent of employers planning cuts.
The news comes as figures reveal the unemployment claimant count rose in January after two months of decline. There are now 1.64 million jobseeker’s allowance claimants, the highest amount since 1997. although the wider measure of unemployment fell to 2.46 million.
A spokesperson for the Public and Commercial Services union, whose members are likely to bear the brunt of the cuts, said: “Over the last four years, we’ve seen the government cut approximately 100,000 jobs in the civil service. To go any further would damage public services we all rely on and it would also jeopardise the recovery.” The union would oppose any compulsory redundancies, they added.
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis commented: “It makes no sense to add public services workers to the dole queues. We are still in the grip of the economic downturn, which means that people rely more than ever on public services for help and support.”
Gail Cartmail, Unite’s head officer for the public sector, said: “In cities such as Newcastle, where two thirds of the economically active are employed in the public sector, the impact of such cuts would be devastating to the local economy – reduced taxation, reduced spending and, ironically greater reliance, on public services such as Job Centres”.
The report also finds further evidence that Britain is suffering from a skills shortage, especially among engineers. 41 per cent of employers have vacancies which are hard to fill, of which the biggest portion – 27 per cent – are in engineering.
“The recession has had little impact on labour and skills shortages”, the report says. The Engineering and Technology Board warned of a shortage of hundreds of thousands of engineers over the next seven years last December.
