By Richard Johnstone | 11 March 2013
The number of people working in local government has fallen by almost 400,000, or 14%, since the coalition took office in 2010, the GMB union said today.
The council headcount fell from almost 2.6 million in the first quarter of 2010 to just under 2.2 million by the third quarter of 2012, according to the GMB’s analysis of Office for National Statistics data. The majority of the job losses arise from vacancy freezes, redundancies and natural wastage resulting from budget cuts. In some cases, jobs that were counted as public sector have been reclassified as private sector, for example staff working in academies and colleges.
In England, the hardest hit region was the Southwest, with a fall of more than 50,000 council workers, almost a quarter (24.6%). London has shed 25,000 workers, but remains the least worst affected English region, registering a drop of 10.6%.
In Scotland, the headcount has fallen by 25,000 (8.4%) and in Wales by 10,300 (6.3%).
Commenting on the figures, Brian Strutton, GMB national secretary for public services, said: ‘For 397 local authorities in Great Britain there are 380,500 fewer people employed by councils than when the coalition government came into office.
‘These are people who provide local services so cuts are a disaster for local communities and for those workers who have lose their jobs. Council budgets are still being cut so this trend in falling employment numbers is likely to continue into 2014.’
In a separate analysis of ONS labour market figures, the Unison trade union revealed that there were almost four unemployed people chasing every vacant job in England, Scotland and Wales.
The trade union compared the number of Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants with unfilled jobcentre vacancies in each council area in Britain. It found that in 113 authorities, there were five or more jobseekers for every vacancy. In 26 of these areas, there were more than ten. In a further 108 areas, there were three or more, but fewer than five, jobseekers for every unfilled role.
The hardest hit area in the country was the Isle of Wight, which had an average of 23.7 people seeking work for every job opening on the island.
In the Northeast of England, more than five people were chasing each job vacancy in every council area, while in almost a third of London’s 32 boroughs more than ten unemployed people were pursuing every job. In Hackney, there are over 20 claimants for every vacant job.
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said the research illustrated the scale of the ‘jobs crisis’ in the economy. He called on Chancellor George Osborne to set out ‘a bold strategy for growth’ in next week’s Budget.
More than 500,000 public sector jobs have gone since the coalition came to power, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies predicted last month that 1.2 million posts could go in total by 2017/18.
Prentis said: ‘Three long years of cuts – with more to come – and still there are not enough jobs to go around. The government has got it wrong on the recession and it has sacrificed our recovery.’
He added that public sector workers should be given a ‘decent pay rise’.
