Warnings of huge job losses among public sector and lawyers

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has warned of significant job losses in the public sector over the next five years.

According to the organisation, as many as 350,000 jobs could be lost within the sector between now and 2015 with chief economist, John Philpott, forecasting that the recession will bring “a bloodbath in the public finances” which will force employers to reduce headcount.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that overall UK unemployment was rising at a faster rate during this recession than at any time since the 1980s.

However, employment in public sector occupations were up 2% year-on-year but Mr Philpott believes this is because the public sector has not yet felt the full impact of the recession.

Meanwhile, the CIPD is warning that not only will the sector experience vast job losses, there is a risk of “an ongoing ‘workplace guerrilla war’ marked by waves of major public sector strikes and regular bouts of unrest.”

Furthermore, The Times reported yesterday that up to 10,000 lawyers could be jobless in the UK in the next two years.

The latest figures from the ONS show that the overall number of jobs in the legal sector, including non-solicitors, fell from 296,500 to 279,800 last year with the scale of losses set to worsen this year as the legal industry faces its worst downturn in decades.

Worryingly, it is set to be challenging for lawyers to find work since vacancies for associate solicitors is down by 95% this year, according to Nick Root of Taylor Root, a recruitment agency.

Finally, profits are suffering in the sector after leading firms including Eversheds, Hebert Smith, Lovells and Norton Rose, reported a decline in partners’ earnings of up to a third for the 2008-09 financial year.

Discuss this in the Finance Markets forums

Story link: Warnings of huge job losses among public sector and lawyers