Employers expect job cuts
Almost half of Britain’s employers are expecting to make redundancies in the next year, according to a new study.
Of the 1,300 organisations surveyed by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), 45 per cent expect a fall in employee numbers by spring 2006.
Only 22 per cent predicted an increase, revealing a gloomy outlook caused in part by recent high-profile job losses and government promises to cut public sector waste.
“With the labour-intensive, consumer services sector experiencing tougher times, and with public sector employers looking to make efficiency savings, the survey might be signalling more than an end of the jobs boom,” CIPD chief economist John Philpott warned.
However, the survey revealed continued growth in the short-term job market, with one in four companies and a third of public sector bodies planning to recruit from abroad to fill skills gaps in their current workforce.
