Redundancy rate set to increase in 2011, CIPD warns

Posted 16/02/2011

Redundancy will continue to hit the British workforce hard in 2011, a survey has suggested.

According to a study carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and KPMG, 40 per cent of British companies have planned redundancies for the first three months of the year – the highest figure since 2004.

Although the private sector is set to generate jobs growth, two-thirds of public sector organisations are to reduce the number of people they employ in the first quarter.

In addition, some 77 per cent of local government employers have planned to make redundancies during the same period of time.

Commenting on the figures, Gerwyn Davies, public policy adviser at the CIPD, said: “The first quarter of 2011 was always going to be a quarter of reckoning for the jobs market and it seems that last year’s modest recovery will be reversed by a modest relapse this year.”

The news follows last year’s survey from The Protection Gap, which showed 31 per cent of British workers are worried about redundancy.