By Nick Mann | 17 January 2012
The 710,000 public sector job losses now expected by 2017 will hit the devolved nations and the Northeast hardest, the Trades Union Congress said today.
Publishing an analysis of the most recent regional unemployment figures and local public sector employment figures, the TUC said the job cuts, which were originally expected to number 400,000, would have a ‘devastating’ impact on regional labour markets.
Basing its calculations on job losses taking place in proportion to current levels of public sector employment, the TUC forecast that 25,992 jobs would go in Northern Ireland. This would be equal to a 3.2% reduction in the total number of people employed in the country.
Wales would suffer a 3% loss of employment, with 39,703 public sector jobs forecast to be lost by 2017, while Scotland would experience a 2.8% fall in the total number of people in work, with 70,225 public sector workers forecast to lose their jobs.
Public sector job cuts would be felt particularly hard in the English Northeast, where the forecast 2.9% loss of employment would add to the region’s already high 11.7% unemployment rate, the TUC said.
It contrasted this with the Southeast and East of England, which are expected to be the least affected regions, with public sector job cuts of 80,836 and 52,937 respectively – equivalent to 1.9% of both regions’ workforces losing their jobs.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the figures showed that the current jobless picture was set to get ‘much, much worse’.
He said: ‘Apart from the huge effect that the job cuts will have upon the provision of public services across the UK, mass redundancies across the public sector are bad news for our struggling economy, and will have a devastating impact upon local high streets, as newly unemployed public sector workers simply stop spending.
‘The government needs to devote much more time and energy towards solving our growing jobs crisis. Instead, it’s making the problem worse, cutting jobs in the public sector and failing to secure growth to protect private sector employees.’
This month’s unemployment figures are due to be published by the Office for National Statistics tomorrow.