Jobs prospects in 2008 'worst in decade'

Updated 07.51 Fri Dec 28 2007

Keywords: employment, 2008, New Year, Jobs

The number of available jobs in the New Year is predicted to be the worst in a decade, according to a report.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said 2008 looked like being "easily the worst" for jobs since 1997, as private firms recruit fewer staff and the public sector cuts back.

The report also highlighted that employment is set to increase by just 0.25 per cent over the next 12 months, a significant drop on rises recorded in the past few years

The report also highlighted that employment is set to increase by just 0.25 per cent over the next 12 months, a significant drop on rises recorded in the past few years.

The institute's chief economist John Philpott said: "In the early part of the decade, periods of slower growth in private sector employment were masked by relatively rapid growth in public sector jobs.

"A downward trend in public sector employment in the past two years has in turn been more than offset by rising numbers of private sector jobs. But 2008 will be the first year for a decade that the engine of job creation will be spluttering right across the economy.

"With higher fuel costs and food prices set to raise the cost of living in the first half of the year the squeeze on real incomes experienced by many workers in 2007 will continue to bite in 2008."

He continued: "With jobs also harder to come by this could reinforce the impact of the economic slowdown, possibly necessitating bigger cuts in interest rates than currently anticipated to head off the threat of recession and a worrying prolonging of the slowdown into 2009."

The report also warned that firms will have to deal with the "particularly tricky" task of handling compulsory redundancies in 2008.