The Chartered Institute of Personnel (CIPD) have warned that British companies are cutting jobs at an ever-growing rate.

More than a third of all employers in the UK are apparently looking to cut jobs in the first quarter of 2009. This number is twice as high as the number that planned to make cuts in the final quarter of 2008.

The CIPD’s chief economist, John Philpott has said: “these latest…figures suggest that job prospects are deteriorating at an alarming rate.”

Exactly what did the CIPD’s survey show?

In total, 36% of the employer that were surveyed said they had plans to cut back on their staff numbers in the first three months of this year. On the other hand, only 27% of businesses are looking into taking on more staff in the same period.

This is the first time since the survey began in 2004 that it has found a higher percentage of employers looking to cut back on staff, than take on more employees.

Mr Philpott said: “the labour market outlook is clearly even worse than expected at the turn of the year.”

What else the survey found…

It also showed that employers are going to be cutting back on pay increases. On top of this, those companies that will increase their pay, are only planning on increasing it by 2.6%, when last autumns’ increase was 3.5%.

Up to one in eight employers also don’t intend to review their pay throughout this year at all.

The Outlook…

Overall, it is thought that the official statistics due out later in the week, will show that unemployment was above two million at the end of last year.

It is also now expected that unemployment rates will reach three million before the market starts to heal itself.

“The speed of the deterioration in the labour market is breathtaking,” said Andrew Smith of KPMG.

 
What do you think?

Do these figures surprise you? Is the government doing enough to stop the rise in unemployment? What is your company doing to ensure as many people as possible get to keep their jobs? Let us know here.

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