Is the public sector appealing to the public?

Survey by monster.co.uk

Is it true that the general public has a rather negative perception of the public sector? Is it still viewed as a non-exciting, low-paid sector or is the myth finally coming to an end? According to a recent survey by Monster.co.uk, more than half of Brits would consider working in the public sector or work in it already.

A total of 1,276 workers were asked the question, Would you consider working for the public sector? which revealed:
50% (638 votes) said: Yes.
24% (311 votes) said: No, it doesn’t pay enough.
13% (168 votes) said: No, it’s too boring.
12% (159 votes) said: I already work in the public sector.
The perception of the public sector seems to be experiencing a shift towards the positive side of the scale. Half of Brits who took part in Monster’s poll admitted they would consider working for the public sector with an additional 12% already working in this sector. On the other hand, 24% of respondents claim the pay is not good enough and 13% consider it to be too boring.

Over the last few years, the public sector has not only increased the number of jobs on offer, but it has also increased the financial retributions of some very rewarding and fulfilling careers in areas such as health or education. As it’s becoming a serious rival to the private sector, its challenge will reside in approaching the talent via the right channels and retaining it, said Joe Slavin, managing director, Monster.co.uk. With the Internet increasingly becoming the primary job hunting research tool for graduates and young job seekers, it makes sense to incorporate such a channel into the recruitment strategy of public bodies. This is an effective way of handling the volume of new jobs and has the potential of reaching a much wider audience.

As most sectors of the economy struggle, the public sector seems to be managing to stay afloat and even boom. According to the Office for National Statistics around 86,000 new jobs were created in the public sector for the year to June 2002. This is slightly less than the 118,000 rise in the previous year. Employment in this sector has now grown in three of the past four years since 1998, by 354,000 in total, the equivalent of around 7%. Before these buoyant years, employment in the public sector had fallen for over 15 years in a row.

Not only there are more jobs being created, but also salaries in the public sector are rising much faster than private pay. With billions of government funding channelled into education, health, local authorities and social services, the salaries of social and welfare workers is experiencing an increase. In addition to recent increases in salary, pension schemes in the public sector aid to make jobs more attractive when comparing with the private sector.

It is not surprising that the increase of government funding in certain sectors is reflected with job gains. As such, the fastest growing sector has been health with a job gain of 61,000 for the year to June 2002, bringing the number of NHS employees to 1.3 million. Health is followed by education and other central government employment with 11,000 and 20,000 jobs respectively.

But despite the promising future and appealing retribution, the public sector still needs to address issues such as its appeal and ageism. A year ago Sir Andrew Foster, the former Audit Commission controller introduced the demographic time bomb concept in his report: A Public Service Workforce for the 21st Century. This concept outlines the problem of having 27% of the 5 million public sector workforce aged over 50 and the number of young recruits falling.

Although the gaps in terms of staff motivation and pay between the public and private sectors are slowly being addressed, it is important to note that the private sector in the UK still accounts for 80% of total jobs, being the dominant employer in production and construction and in many services.

The results of the current Monster Meter are based on votes cast by Monster.co.uk visitors from 18th August 2003 to 1st September 2003. Only one vote per user is counted toward the final tabulation. The Monster Meter, a product of Monster, the leading global online careers site and flagship brand of Monster Worldwide Inc. (formerly TMP Worldwide Inc.), is a series of online polls that gauge users’ opinions on a variety of topics relating to careers, the economy and the workplace. Anyone interested in voting in Monster’s current online poll may do so by logging onto