3 July 2012
236,900 fewer jobs in local councils in England and Wales since the general election 2010 with the south west top of the job losses league with 40,600 fewer jobs.
These cuts have created unemployment, denied job opportunities to young people and cut services as the bankers continue to rip away with their bonuses and their fiddles and carry on tax dodging to show who is paying the price for austerity in Tory Liberal Britain says GMB
The number of workers employed by local authorities in England and Wales has fallen from 2,254,700 in the first quarter 2010 to 2,017,800 in the first quarter 2012. This is a drop of 236,900 or 10.5% of all those employed by local authorities in England and Wales.
The South West has seen the greatest fall in any region in England and Wales in the numbers employed in councils in the two years since the general election. The number of local authority workers employed in workplaces in the South West has fallen by 40,600. Next comes the North West down 34,300, East of England down 30,300, West Midlands down 25,000, Yorkshire and The Humber down 24,300, South East down 23,600, London down 20,400, North East down 18,900, East Midlands down 13,100 and Wales down 6,300. The figures for all 10 regions in England and Wales are set out in the table below. In Notes to Editors 5 below are the figures for the top twenty councils with the greatest fall in the number employed by the local authority. Cornwall tops that league down 8,938 followed by Devon down 7,837, Essex down 7,368 and Lancashire down 5,376.
Total public sector employment in the UK has declined in the eighth consecutive quarters since the general election 2010. Employment in the public sector as a whole in the UK has declined from 6,323,000 in the first quarter of 2010 to 5,899,000 in quarter one 2012. This is a drop of 424,000 or 6.7% of the total.
The information is from a new analysis by GMB, the union for public sector workers, of the latest quarterly public sector employment survey from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The numbers are reported to the ONS by the local authorities. See Notes to Editors below for sources and definitions. Please note that the data includes teachers and school staff. Changes in the numbers shown can arise because of outsourcing/insourcing of services and changes in school status. The Figures for all Local Authorities in England and Wales are in pdf at the foot of this release at www.gmb.org.uk.
|
Headcount |
|||||
|
Quarter 1 2010 |
Quarter 1 2012 |
change % |
change |
||
|
rank |
|||||
|
England and Wales |
2,254,700 |
2,017,800 |
-236,900 |
-10.5 |
|
|
1 |
South West |
213,200 |
172,600 |
-40,600 |
-19.0 |
|
2 |
North West |
305,600 |
271,300 |
-34,300 |
-11.2 |
|
3 |
East of England |
217,500 |
187,200 |
-30,300 |
-13.9 |
|
4 |
West Midlands |
244,200 |
219,200 |
-25,000 |
-10.2 |
|
5 |
Yorkshire and the Humber |
243,600 |
219,300 |
-24,300 |
-10.0 |
|
6 |
South East |
301,700 |
278,100 |
-23,600 |
-7.8 |
|
7 |
London |
242,300 |
221,900 |
-20,400 |
-8.4 |
|
8 |
North East |
129,700 |
110,800 |
-18,900 |
-14.6 |
|
9 |
East Midlands |
192,300 |
179,200 |
-13,100 |
-6.8 |
|
10 |
Wales |
164,600 |
158,300 |
-6,300 |
-3.8 |
Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary said,
“What lies behind these statistics is the cold hard fact that this government has destroyed 236,900 local authority jobs in England and Wales since the general election in 2010. In the UK as a whole 424,000 jobs have been lost in the public sector in that period.
These cuts have created unemployment, denied job opportunities to young people and cut services as the bankers continue to rip away with their bonuses and their fiddles and Cameron's mates carry on tax dodging to show who is really paying the price for austerity in Tory Liberal Britain.
The government's role is to deliver an economy which grows employment and living standards. Perhaps someone should take a note around to Number Eleven Downing Street to explain this to the Chancellor.
The government said it was making these cuts to bring down the deficit. But all the economic data confirms that the economy is going nowhere and that there has been no reduction in the deficit. The current economic strategy is a complete shambles and is in tatters. Osborne seems to have no idea what to do.”