Post-election public sector jobs cull warning
A post-election push to slash the public deficit is set to threaten the UK’s economic recovery and risk a sharp rise in unemployment, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has warned.
Chief economic adviser John Philpott sounded the note of caution in his analysis of the three main parties’ pre-election policies. He said that the post-election public spending squeeze would be “far greater” than any of the main political parties is prepared to admit and that it was probable that the next government would have to reduce the public workforce by up to 10%.
“A 10% reduction in the 5.8 million core public-sector workforce is probable, the prospect of 500,000 public-sector jobs being shed in the next five years dwarfing anything implicit in the election manifestos,” said Philpott.
However, he did not support the Conservatives’ plans to start making cuts immediately, as the timing of deficit reduction plans is crucial for the fate of the economy.
“We are concerned that the Conservative plan to push ahead immediately with £6 billion of spending cuts would threaten the economic recovery and increase the risk of higher unemployment,” Philpott said.