NIESR says private sector growth not enough to halt overall recruitment drop

Recruiters are learning that private sector growth will do little to halt rising unemployment in the UK.

Data from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and KPMG this week predicted the first increase in employment in Britain since the winter of 2008, but warned of a stark contrast between improving conditions for private organisations and the declining public sector.

Its survey of employers showed that public sector bosses expected a significant decline in its workforce.

However, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research’s (NIESR’s) economist Simon Kirby expected jobless figures to continue to increase across the country’s economy.

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He claimed that job growth would not be strong enough to take in the expanding labour force moving into 2011.

While he admitted the emergence out of recession was positive news, the country must be aware that unemployment would still increase if the economy continued to be fragile in the next couple of years, which NIESR believes is likely to occur.

By Colette Paxton