CIPD questions whether private sector can compensate for public sector job cuts 
The current rate of public sector job losses is far greater than official projections, say researchers at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). The number of jobs lost since April is five times greater than the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) projected for the entire year and is likely to be 610,000. Which was the original projection of the OBR before they reduced this to 410,000.
As a result, the CIPD has called on the government to “call a halt to public sector job cuts while the economy and labour market remain in the current fragile condition”.
The body has also questioned whether the private sector was capable of compensating for public sector losses, as the government is hoping.
“Especially worrying is that public sector job losses in the second quarter of 2011 far exceeded net private sector job creation, which suggests that the slowdown in economic growth since the autumn of 2010 is gradually sapping the strength of those parts of the economy that were creating jobs in the initial part of the recovery,” the CIPD said. Therefore it would be “sensible to delay all further job cuts to the end of this parliament and, if necessary, into the next”.
However, a Treasury source told the BBC that it was sceptical of the CIPD’s projections as it had previously overestimated the UK unemployment peak.
To read an account of the job cuts from a senior manager in the public sector click here
BBC Source:
Amanda Frewin
Research & Project Support
