Labour market findings suggest worsening public services ahead

This week saw the release of the latest Labour Market Outlook, a quarterly review of changes in the labour market, drawing upon data from over 2,000 employers.

While the news which has made the headlines is the overall reduction in wage growth–the latest inflation figures aren’t due until Thursday but pay packets now look set to remain significantly behind what they were before Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, the numbers also have a story to tell about the current direction of public services.

While future pay awards have declined across both private and public sectors, the reduction in the public sector has been twice that of the private sector. Coming after over a decade of declining pay deals relative to the public sector, the result of this will be further hit to public sector bodies in trying to recruit and retain staff.

For public sector employers there is one upside to this, for while both public and private sector employers are looking to reduce their staff levels over the next three months, public sector employers are again twice as likely to want to lose staff over this period.

So, after 14 years of austerity, having fewer people wanting to work for public services may help to balance the books, but that’s clearly little comfort for those employees who are now set to lose their jobs or for anyone who depends upon functional public services to get through life, whether that’s having the roads in a usable condition and getting your bins collected, being able to access healthcare and education, or for national defence and law and order.

If you are someone who does depend upon any of these things or the thousands of other services delivered by the public sector, then much like the last 14 years of Conservative Government, the next three months are going to see living conditions in the UK continue to get worse.