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back to article Job cuts on the rise

The number of companies expecting to make people redundant in the first quarter of this year is expected to rise sharply. Figures from KPMG and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development show private sector jobs might help offset public sector cutbacks - but overall two out of three employers expect to have less …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    About time

    The private sector particularly health and Local Government have had a good time for years creating made up jobs and paying themselves over the odds pay increases and lets not talk about index linked final salary pensions schemes. So it's about time they got into the real world.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Err...

      Let me guess, you actually meant the Public Sector and you've never worked in it, or know anyone who does work in it. Pay in the public sector is generally piss-poor in comparison to the private sector, despite what the Daily Mail/Torygraph tell you.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Economics: Just made-up science.

    Would these be figures based on a report that surveys a whopping 750 employers?

    Last March there were 2.10 million businesses in the UK (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1238).

    The headlines /should/ say "KPMG and CIPD interviewed 0.036% of employers and made some pointless generalisations based on that tiny sample in a desperate effort to whore themselves about and gain more attention".

    Looks like their gamble's worked, eh?

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    AC...

    You know nothing about Local Government, and your post shows this in spades.

    I work for a local Authority, and the moment the credit crunch hit we stopped recruiting. We've seen our service reduce significantly in staffing, and yet we've changed to offer improved services. And yet we're still being hit with reduncancy and retirment.

    I get paid less than a friend who works in private sector, who does a similar job to me. I look after about 50 staff he looks after far less. He got a 12% payrise this year, i got 0.25%.

    As for my Pension, keep you mits off, I work bloody hard for what I get paid.

    I suggest you try to work in a sector such as Local Authority, where Government/local Elections/Councillors whim mean restructures and changes of direction every couple of years and see how good a job you can do.

    Considering the way we're made to work its a wonder anything gets done.... I hope in the future we're allowed to work like a business. Sure your services will cost more, but you'll get more, a lot more.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      @AC @AC :)

      "You know nothing about Local Government, and your post shows this in spades."

      Too bloody right.

      My daughter just moved from the private sector to the public sector doing more or less the exact same job but gets 25% less than she earned in the private sector.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Look before you leap

        Did she not check the pay before she moved? If she didn't then she is probably still paid to much.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      AC... → #

      Having worked on contract for a Health Quango it seemed to me their main purpose was to work out how to spend their allocated money thus inventing justification for their jobs.

      Health service IT also seems to suffer from a peculiar situation whereby at least three or four entities both public & private are funded to do exactly the same thing and nearly all are providing poor service for extortionate fees.

      The worst offenders for waste in the NHS are private sector outsourcing companies, the big name global corporates who feel justified in charging absolutely massive fees for extremely trivial systems which could be implemented and managed for a fraction of the cost.

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      1. Dave 15
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        its the purchasing system

        Having tried to bid for some government / nhs work....

        a) You HAVE to be a company of at least multi million size

        b) You HAVE to be a company with several decades history

        c) You HAVE to be a company who has implemented something similar (even if it wasn't good)

        d) You preferably should be foreign and employing foreign workers.

        They explain (a) and (b) as meaning you will be around to support the mess you create... yet as we all know there is a very good chance of even big companies going out of business

        (c) is explained as 'knowing what you are doing' but we also know that big companies lose people, move people to other projects and may employ totally 'new' people on any given project

        (d) is just fact - unexplained, but lets face it this applies to all UK government contracts these days - while Able marine are bringing American ships here to cut up our own government is spending UK tax payers money employing EGYPTIANS via a BELGIUM company to chop up the perfectly serviceable Ark Royal.

        What all of this means to the UK is high unemployment and very expensive contracts.

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    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      My heart bleeds

      "I get paid less than a friend who works in private sector, who does a similar job to me. I look after about 50 staff he looks after far less. He got a 12% payrise this year, i got 0.25%."

      "As for my Pension, keep you mits off, I work bloody hard for what I get paid."

      - Most of the people I know in the private/public sector are shit scared. I know of noone getting a payrise full stop. I know of plenty getting culled / having their pay cut, and the fact that you are getting any payrise is a miracle that I cannot explain given that the public sector is making 25% cuts. Presumably your payrise is going to be at the expense of some of your colleagues jobs?

      I feel sorry for anyone facing the sack or having their pay cut (thats me) so feck off with your winging.

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  4. despairing citizen
    Unhappy

    Private Sector Jobs vs Public Sector Jobs

    So when a highways authority decides to spend £90m repairing roads instead of the previous £100m, where do the job cuts go?

    Answer, the private sector highways maint contractors, yes there will be a few less contracts and admin staff in the council, but the big hit is in the engineering firms that do the repairs.

    Other economic impacts include things like your car insurance going up due to the increase in claims the insurer is paying out on, due to the naff state of the roads.

    The black and white view the government and many commentors have on public sector vs private sector jobs and economics is spurious, the two are highly interlinked.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Public Sector Too Expensive

    The public sector is simply too expensive. It forever expands and there is simply not enough money to pay for it. There needs to be some serious cuts but as per usual successive governments shy away from reducing spending because they fear the political backlash from cutting the biggest workforce in the country. Private business rarely gets into this state because when we become inefficient, someone will step in with a cheaper alternative. This does not tend to happen in the public sector. This also keeps the workforce trim, by removal of ineffectual employees. This tends not to happen to the same degree in the public sector.

    Many of the jobs will be taken up by the private sector, because they will be able to do it for less money. Many of the people in the public sector will be able to move to the private sector to do the same job. Eventually, when they become more expensive, the competition will move in and keep the costs down.

    People in the private sector are just as good as the people in the private sector, but because of the lack of free market competition - they can rarely be as cost effective.

    There is a cost to this for the employee - you will not have as secure a job in the private sector (yes I know this is not the case at the moment), your sick and pension provisions will not be as good. They will have far less employment protection if you have prolonged absence.

    Oddly enough - many of these downsides are also good points. The public sector is often weighed down by having wasters on its payroll. Because the absence levels are so high, there is added stress on the remaining employees doing the work. And quite often this leads to really poor working environment. In the private sector - there is pressure on you to make it to work - and compete / help each other.

    I can't wait to see the flames that this post creates. And many public bodies are excellent. But I think a lot of the stuff I've said will be recognised by public and private sector people.

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    1. Dave 15
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      flaming heck...

      The private sector has people 'investing' and expecting a 'return on investment', as in 'free money' or 'profit' from the provision of services are somehow cheaper than the public sector who need to make no profit.

      This is balls, always has been.

      If the public sector is inefficient then sack the useless bunch of managers, the lazy workers etc. and put in new people. 20% of the 16-64 year old population of this country are not working so there are plenty of candidates out there.

      We have seen from the various Thatcherite and later Blair/Brown privatisations that what it really means is a couple of years of looking good followed by massive pay hikes, massive cost hikes, huge subsidies, massive profits and the poor old consumer being forced (often by use of the law) to pay far more for basic essentials.

      I agree the current public sector does need a massive slim down and a huge change in efficiency, but privatisation is NOT the way forward - a large hatchet to the salaries and jobs in the public sector is. I would first off just take 7 out of 10 management jobs and scrap them followed by 3 out of 10 in all other 'ranks'. Then see where we are after a year.

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