Private sector job openings are set to more than offset public sector job cuts, according to the latest Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)/KPMG quarterly jobs survey.

The Labour Market Outlook (LMO), conducted by Ipsos-MORI, finds a net positive balance of +11, which measures the difference between the proportion of employers that intend to increase total staffing levels and those that intend to decrease total staffing levels, between the proportion of employers intending to increase staff levels in the fourth quarter and those intending to decrease staff levels.

The private sector registered a net positive balance of +39 while the public sector recorded a net negative balance of -44.

Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the CIPD, says: “Signs of not only sustained but also increasing buoyancy in private sector job prospects is encouraging, especially since some other forward looking economic and labour market indicators have been subdued of late.

“What remains to be seen is how much of this good news is merely a pre-festive season surge in private sector jobs or evidence of a sustained improvement that will continue to offset large scale public sector job cuts which, as the LMO survey shows, are already well underway and on a scale in line with the CIPD’s current forecast for total public sector job losses by 2015-16. With employers clearly far more cautious about the 12 month than the 3 month jobs outlook it is far too soon to conclude that the UK will avoid a rise in unemployment in 2011.”