UK Job cuts latest: council job losses total passes 150,000

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

Perilous Times

UK Job cuts latest: council job losses total passes 150,000

The seemingly inexorable rise in jobs formally declared "at risk" continues as local authorities finalise cuts plans


    * Patrick Butler
    * guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 February 2011 12.00 GMT


The number of jobs earmarked for redundancy by councils in the UK has risen to above 150,000, up 10,000 over the past week as councils begin to finalise cuts plans.

The latest figures compiled by the GMB union reflect formal notifications of "jobs at risk" made by 260 councils and authorities. A further 239 are expected to reveal the extent of job losses in the next few weeks, including 22 of Britain's biggest council employers.

The biggest cuts to emerge over the past few days were at: Rotherham council (893 jobs at risk); Wigan council (820); West Sussex county council (800); South Wales police authority (688); Wakefield council (504); Suffolk police authority (300); Westminster City council (250); Wiltshire county council (250); and Wandsworth council (210).

The jobs at risk total includes councils, police and fire authorities and national parks. It does not include "at risk" notifications made by charities, private companies contracted by the public sector, or NHS trusts.

Here's the GMB's regional job losses breakdown:

    North East 9,214
    North West 29,125
    Yorkshire & The Humber 18,243
    East Midlands 11,609
    West Midlands 20,937
    Eastern 9,829
    London 14,590
    South East 13,413
    South West total 11,408
    Wales total 1,858
    Scotland total 9,833
    Total all regions 150,059

Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary, said:

    "Coupled with announcements of big job losses in the private sector these 150,059 jobs under threat at 260 councils is really bad news. The figure for jobs under threat in the public sector just keeps going up. The Government can not blame the snow for this bad news. It is very worrying that the economy is being run as a "a one trick pony" show.
    The government is deliberately creating unemployment on a scale that we have not seen before. The government spending plans not only threatens these 150,059 council posts and job losses in the rest of the public sector but there are additional job losses in the voluntary sector funded by public sector grants and in the outsourced private sector."

For a discussion of how far we should interpret the figures as an accurate predictor of eventual job losses, see my earlier blog post.