UK job prospects deteriorating fast

The winter Labour Market Outlook (LMO) survey of 892 UK employers, conducted by Ipsos Mori at the turn of the year for the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development (CIPD) and KMG, finds that more than one in three (36%) plan to cut jobs in the first quarter of 2009 – double the proportion expecting to make job cuts at the time of the previous LMO survey last autumn. The latest LMO survey also finds that employers intend to keep a much tighter rein on pay increases in the coming months. Those who plan pay reviews expect staff pay to increase on average by 2.6%, much lower than the 3.5% average increase expected last autumn. But as many as one in eight employers don’t intend to conduct a pay review at all in 2009 CIPD chief economist John Philpott (pictured) said: “The labour market outlook is clearly even worse than expected at the turn of the year. Official statistics later this week will confirm that unemployment passed 2 million at the end of 2008. It now seems sadly inevitable that UK unemployment will top 3 million before the jobs market finally starts to recover”.