One in three firms set to cut jobs

Figure is up from 22pc of companies in the previous survey by the CIPD

One in three companies expect to make redundancies by the end of September in a blow to Britain's hopes of economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis, a new survey has found.

The 33pc figure – revealed in a survey by human resources body the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and recruiter Adecco – represents a rise from 22pc of companies shown in the groups' spring quarterly report.

The latest survey suggests the jobs market will continue to shrink through the summer quarter, with the number of employers expecting to hire workers falling further below the number planning for redundancies.

The report said its disparity marker between the two categories of employers fell four points from the spring quarter to -8, the lowest it has been since the survey's methodology was adopted in 2013.

"The survey data also suggests that the redundancy activity will be broad-based, with IT, manufacturing and construction sectors the most likely to be affected," said the CIPD's Gerwyn Davies.

It comes as analysts fear a major jobs decline in the autumn involving furloughed staff, as the Government's job retention scheme winds down towards its October termination.

The latest CIPD-Adecco survey also showed employers had adopted a number of responses to cope with the pandemic.

More than four in 10 (42pc) had applied recruitment freezes, the sharpest examples coming in the hospitality sector (65pc), business services (54pc) and in IT (52pc).

In seeking to preserve jobs, 18pc of employers instituted pay cuts, 26pc bonus cuts, and 33pc froze or delayed pay rises. Pay cuts were most prevalent in construction (44pc), business services (30pc) and hospitality (29pc).

Other responses have included introducing new or more flexible working arrangements (38pc), cuts to training budgets (23pc), temporary lay-offs through the Job Retention Scheme (54pc), and the termination of agency or temporary worker contracts (32pc).

Additionally, 69pc of employers extended home-working significantly across their workforce, especially in the fields of public administration and other public sector areas (85pc), business services (84pc), information and communication (81pc), and education (71pc).

As expected, fewer employers in hospitality (46pc) and transport and storage (53pc) were able to increase home-working.

The figures come with the UK's economy expected to officially enter recession this week, having fallen by a record 20pc in the spring quarter.

Meanwhile, more than 22,000 restaurant jobs have been lost this year – almost double the number for all of last year, according to the Centre for Retail Research.

Its figures show that 22,039 roles were lost across large restaurant groups and independent operators from the start of the year to August 4.

It said this represents a 95.4% increase on the 11,280 job losses reported during the whole of 2019.

The figures also revealed that 1,467 restaurants and casual dining outlets have closed over this period, up 59pc from the 922 sites that closed in 2019.

CRR director Joshua Bamfield said: "The sector was already in severe difficulties before the pandemic as a result of rapid over-expansion fuelled by private equity acquisitions, with the enforced lockdown serving to starve operators of revenue bringing restaurateurs now to their knees."

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