By Vivienne Russell
6 September 2010
Public sector job vacancies have almost halved in the past 20 months, latest figures show.
The Reed Job Index for August, published today, compiles job vacancy data from across the economy and benchmarks performance against a baseline of 100, set in December 2009 when the index began.
For public sector jobs, the index has been dropping
throughout 2010, dipping to 63 in July and a low of 57 in August.
This is in contrast to other employment sectors, which have undergone
considerable growth since 2009. These include law, insurance and consultancy,
where the index has grown to 121, 136 and 133 respectively. The job market in
the charity and voluntary sector has also grown this year.
Katy Nicholson, researcher on the index, told Public Finance that the situation with public sector jobs was ‘not surprising given the political situation’.
‘It indicates that we are now beginning to see the bite in terms of public sector organisations being able to offer new employment opportunities,’ she said.
Other sectors to record a decline included education (down to 82), social care (down to 60) and training (down to 64).
A breakdown of the job index by region show the job market contracting in London, the Northeast and Northwest, but expanding in the Southwest, West Midlands and Yorkshire.Figuresfrom the Office for National Statistics also published today showed that in the first quarter of 2010 NHS employment increased across the UK. NHS employment rose by 66,000 or 4.2% when compared with the first quarter of 2009.
There were also slight increases in education and public administration which grew by 0.5% and 0.4% compared with the same quarter in 2009.
But these two sectors saw wide regional variations. In education, employment grew by 6.6% in the east of England, but declined by 3.6% in the northwest. In public administration, the increase reached a high of 8.2% in the northeast and a 6.2% drop in Wales.
David Matthews, the ONS statistician responsible for public sector employment figures, said: ‘These new analyses will help users understand regional differences in public sector employment in more depth than before. Previously we had not published the industry breakdowns by regions, only at national level.’
