The jobs market will continue to shrink in the next three months as the number of employers planning to make redundancies continues to exceed the number of employers planning to hire according to the CIPD/KPMG Labour Market Outlook, a survey of more than 500 employers. The key indicator in the quarterly report covers net employment intentions*, and this quarter the figure has fallen to another record low of -19, down ten points compared with the winter quarter.
In a sign that the recession is hitting all sectors of the economy, the net employment intentions figure is now negative for all three main sectors of the economy for the first time. Although the private sector is most pessimistic, with a net employment intention figure of -30; the public sector is now also recording a net figure of -3 due to a rise in the number of redundancies in local government in particular. The figure for the voluntary sector is -12.
However there are some positives to note with some data showing signs that the freefall in economic activity may be coming to an end and an expectation that private sector net employment intentions will start to improve in the near future
