Public sector workers were warned yesterday that they would have to adapt to a more flexible way of working if they wanted to keep their jobs.

Vince Cable, secretary of state for Business, Innovation & Skills, told the audience at the Civil Service Live conference that they needed to follow the lead of private sector employees who kept their jobs after the recession because they adapted to different working patterns.

The government’s plans to redistribute public sector jobs from the South-East, where there is the highest number of roles, to regional towns combined with potential future redundancies within the sector mean that most public sector employees may face a future of part-time or contract employment.

Cable warned that the public sector had not felt the full pain of the banking crisis yet and that the government has absorbed the shock of the crunch through borrowing 12% GDP, which was not sustainable.

He also described his concerns for areas of the UK where the public sector made up more that half of the economy and highlighted the government’s incentives for new business start-ups as a way of creating new jobs. When asked if there would be a double-dip, he said: “There is a risk of a double-dip but the greater risk is doing nothing about it.”