By Richard Johnstone | 20 March 2013
Public sector employment has fallen for the thirteenth consecutive quarter to just over 5.7 million, the Office for National Statistics reported today.
In its quarterly update on employment, the ONS revealed the number of people working in the public sector fell by 20,000 in the three months between October and December 2012.
The largest fall was in local government, which was down 32,000 in the quarter. The number of civil servants fell by 4,000 but total central government employment actually increased over the period by 11,000. Employment in public corporations also grew by 1,000 over the three months, according to the update, Public sector employment.
Overall, there are now 313,000 fewer public sector employees than in the fourth quarter of 2011. However, this fall is affected by the change in the status of English colleges in the second quarter of 2012, which resulted in 196,000 employees being reclassified from the public to the private sector.
Private sector employment at the end of 2012 is estimated to be 904,000 higher than in the previous year. This includes a 151,000 increase in the last quarter alone, the sixth consecutive quarterly rise.
Also today, the ONS published the unemployment figures for the three months from November 2012 to January 2013.
Unemployment stood at 2.52 million at the end of January, an increase of 7,000 on the previous three months. The unemployment rate is 7.8%, unchanged from the last estimate but down 0.5 percentage points from the same period a year ago.
Trade union Unison said the rise in unemployment to the end of January showed the ‘damaging stagnation’ in the jobs market that had resulted from the government’s economic policies.
General secretary Dave Prentis highlighted that, this time five years ago, there were 1 million fewer unemployed people in the UK.
‘The government has failed every single one of these people and it has failed our country.
‘Every redundancy is a personal tragedy and brings with it hardship for the whole family. And the story behind each job lost in the public sector is one of libraries closing, day care centres shutting, fewer nurses on the wards or young people losing vital careers advice and help.’
