Public sector cuts mean 110,000 jobs go in second quarter

Thursday, 15 September 2011 10:59

More than 110,000 public sector workers lost their jobs in the second quarter of 2011, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have revealed.

This figure is five times higher than the government's prediction of 20,000 for the whole year.

According to the ONS, the drop in the total of public sector employees to 6.04 million between April and June was the biggest since comparable quarterly records began in 1999.

The report also revealed that the public sector accounted for 20.7 per cent of all people in employment in June, the lowest percentage since September 2008.

Almost 250,000 public sector jobs have been cut in the past year.

Meanwhile, the number of people employed in the private sector increased by 41,000 over the quarter, reaching 23.13 million.

It means the total unemployed number now stands at 2.51 million, or 7.9 per cent of the workforce.

Scott Corfe, senior economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, said the figures supported the view that the private sector would fail to absorb the public sector cuts.

"The number of people employed in the public sector fell by a staggering 111,000 between March and June, suggesting that job shedding in the public sector is occurring at a much more rapid rate than anticipated," he said.

Mr Corfe added: "The fact that private sector job creation was just 41,000 over this time period confirms our long-held view that the private sector labour market would be unable to offset public sector job losses in the short-term."

Graeme Leach, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, said it was time for the Bank of England to embark on a second round of quantitative easing.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber described the figures as "terrible".

"They are further evidence that the recovery has been choked off by a self-defeating rush to austerity. Government policies are hurting, but they aren't working," he added.

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