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40% cut in public sector jobs as NHS & schools protected

The public sector outside of the NHS and schools faces a "very challenging" 40 percent cut in its workforce over the next five years if those areas continue to be protected by Government, a new report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned.

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Public sector to see 'challenging' falls in staff

Public sector workforce will be "challenging" according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, with worker numbers outside of the NHS and schools likely to fall between 30 to 40 percent in the next five years.

The public sector workforce grew by over 600,000 over the 2000s. Even so the scale of the reductions expected over the next few years looks challenging.

If delivered, the 1.1 million drop in general government employment forecast by the OBR between 2010/11 and 2018/19 would be almost three times larger than the previous drop during the early 1990s.

The workforce is a useful prism through which to look at the effects of cutting total spending whilst protecting the NHS and schools budgets from cuts.

– Jonathan Cribb, research economist at IFS

Public sector areas 'face a 40% cut in workforce'

The public sector outside of the NHS and schools faces a "very challenging" 40 percent cut in its workforce over the next five years if those areas continue to be protected by Government, a new report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned.

Independent forecasts released by the Office for Budget Responsibility in December predicted a 1.1 million reduction in general government employment between 2010/11 and 2018/19 as a result of austerity measures.

The IFS report found that this would be the biggest cut in the public sector workforce for more than half a century, "dwarfing" cuts of 350,000 seen in the early 1990s and "dramatically changing the nature of the UK labour market".

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