Official employment figures set to confirm UK public sector as a ërecession-free zoneí

Official employment figures set to confirm UK public sector as a ërecession-free zoneí while private sector suffers mounting job losses and widespread pay freezes

Figures due to be published later today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will highlight the degree to which public sector pay and employment has remained immune to the impact of the recession.

Commenting ahead of the ONS figures, which will also show that UK unemployment has topped 2 million for the first time since 1997, John Philpott, Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) says that while the Government is right not to cut public sector jobs at this point in the economic cycle ministers should take a much tighter grip on public sector pay.

Dr Philpott continues:

ìWhereas previous UK recessions have often been characterised by a regional ënorth-south divideí, the most noticeable feature of the current recession is the ëpublic sector-private sector divide.í

ìThe public sector is at present an entirely ërecession free zoneí. While private sector employers are shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs and freezing or cutting the pay of millions of employees, their public sector counterparts are mostly maintaining staffing levels and presiding over relatively generous pay increases.

ìAs unemployment passes the 2 million mark, on its way to at least 3 million, there is a strong case for preserving or increasing public sector employment. The public sector needs additional resources at this time to cope with the various social consequences of the recession, and it would anyway be a false economy for government to make public sector staff redundant and then have to pay them welfare benefits. There may in due course be a need to trim the public sector workforce, but for the time being this makes no sense.

ìWhat the government could and should do, however, is put a clamp on public sector pay rises. With the private sector in dire straits, and inflation for now giving way to deflation, there is no labour market necessity or strong economic justification for public sector earnings to rise faster than private sector earnings.

ìCash strapped private businesses are asking staff to make sacrifices to save jobs. The government and public sector employers should do likewise, redirecting savings on wage bills to help combat the rising toll of unemployment. Public sector employees have a vital role to play in dealing with the consequences of recession. But part of that role is sharing the burden of pain, which at the moment is being borne solely by their private sector counterparts.î