Public sector jobs- record low

The Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) believes the total Government job reductions under the current austerity programme will total 880,000 by the year 2017, which is the target year for the Government to close out the fiscal deficit, with around 700,000 jobs to go by 2015.

This equates to 1 in 7 of the public workforce and will bring the ratio of public sector jobs in the UK down to 1 in 6 of those available, down from a high of 1 in 5 before the recession.

The overall UK unemployment level, currently at 2.67 million or 8.4% of the workforce, is expected to rise gently as the year progresses, potentially flirting with the headline figure of 3 million unemployed, late in the year, if the Government's various initiatives to combat this and assist the private sector make up the job losses, fail to have the expected impact.