The government should consider delaying job cuts in the public sector, according to Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) chief economic adviser, Dr John Philpott.

The CIPD Work Audit report shows that the public sector shed almost a quarter of a million jobs in the government’s first year of office, with public sector job losses in the first quarter of the current financial year (2011-12) already five times greater than projected by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) for the entire year.

Taking figures on actual public sector job losses together with the existing OBR projection, this indicates a total loss of more than 600,000 public sector jobs between 2010-11 and 2015-16 – a third more than ministers say they anticipate.   

Philpott says: “With the economy and labour market in such a fragile condition, it is worrying that public sector job losses are turning out to be much greater than ministers have previously been suggesting.

“A more sensible course would be to delay public sector job cuts to the end of this Parliament and if necessary into the next, thereby enabling them to be absorbed more easily without nasty macroeconomic side-effects.

“The government’s plan for growth must rightly contain measures to stimulate private sector job creation but the Chancellor should also avoid the own goal of cutting public sector jobs at a time of high and rising unemployment.”