Pictured above: Simon Bond
The public sector is under increasing pressure to save jobs and
wherever possible fill local authority staff shortages, in the face
of spiralling unemployment figures.
Employment lawyer Simon Bond, a Partner at Midlands law firm
Challinors, says: "Undoubtedly the pressure is moving from the
private to the public sector to keep redundancies at bay and
wherever possible fill council posts to address local community
needs in the credit crunch, in an attempt to help stabilise the
labour market across the UK.
"The total number of unemployed in the UK rose to 2.43 million
in June, according to data this week from the Office for National
Statistics (ONS) and I fear, these figures are likely to continue
to rise and are on course to reach 3 million by 2010 as the
majority of experts are predicting."
His comments come in the wake of the findings of the latest
quarterly Labour Market Outlook survey, which revealed private
sector demand for staff has stabilised this summer following the
surge of redundancies earlier in 2009, but which indicates rising
pessimism in the public sector.
"According to the CIPD, which runs the Survey with KPMG,
employment intentions in the public sector fell dramatically in the
last quarter, in anticipation of public spending cuts over the
coming months, with redundancies in local government and higher
education in particular looking to be high.
"The latest unemployment figures are significant, and represent
the highest level of people out of work in over twelve years.
Whilst the pace in the rise in unemployment has slowed, employment
will I am sure keep falling, and the public sector should do what
it can to help to put the brakes on and stave off job losses for
their workers."
Challinors has offices in Birmingham, West Bromwich,
Wolverhampton, Halesowen and Nottingham. The firm has 23 partners
and over 100 fee earners, and is ranked as one of the top legal
firms in the West Midlands, being Number 1 in the Chambers UK
Directory in a number of categories, including Clinical
Negligence.