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UK will lose fewer public sector jobs, says OBR

THE independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) says public sector job losses will not be as high as previously thought.

The OBR now expects 330,000 public sector workers to lose their jobs over the next four years, far fewer than the 490,000 it forecast in its June report.

At the same time, it raised its estimate for economic growth this year, from 1.2% to 1.8%.

But it lowered its growth estimates for the next two years.

The OBR indicated that economic performance next year would be growth of 2.1% - down from its previous 2.3% forecast; and 2.6% in 2012, down from the 2.8% previously pencilled in.

There were further relatively positive predictions on jobs, with a forecast that, after a peak of just over 8% unemployment in 2011, the rate would fall steadily to just over 6% by 2015.

The OBR said it had changed its public sector job forecast because the government had put more emphasis on welfare cuts and less on departmental spending cuts since it made its earlier forecast.

The government-appointed body’s chairman Robert Chote said the creation of one million private sector jobs in that time would “more than offset” falling public sector employment.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .