Public sector job cuts hysteria belies social consequences‏

People management website reports that the “Public sector faces job losses ‘on unprecedented scale”
http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2009/12/public-sector-faces-job-losses-on-unprecedented-scale.htm - Any local council that takes a slash and burn approach to their local jobs market will face serious and long term consequences......

People are getting just a bit hysterical here – the predictions have jumped from 10-15% to this one now at 20-30%. The real story isn’t the uncertified assumptions of Gillian Hibberd as President of Public Sector People Managers' Association but the quiet reflection of Tracey Dennison, managing director of HR at the Audit Commission. “The loss of local government jobs will have an effect on local labour markets.”

Any local council that takes a slash and burn approach to their local jobs market will face serious and long term consequences. Loss of local jobs will at best lose elections and at worse lead to the long term ghettoisation of communities. Even the Tories learnt this lesson from the mining villages, that they systematically destroyed with pit closures, only to find themselves years later, championed by Duncan Smith, bemoaning the perils of communities in decline.

Given most front line jobs are emptying bins, cleaning streets and parks and keeping street lights working and roads moving or caring for older people, it would be a foolish politician indeed that takes a sledge hammer to the front line. Of course it does serve some purpose to whisper increasingly loudly that ‘we’re all doomed’ what better way for employers to argue the toss against redundancy in favour of ‘you can keep your jobs but on less pay and with worse terms and conditions’.

Scaremongering suits specific purposes - as all those cleaners and dinner ladies who lost their bonuses and pay in the 80’s to keep their jobs under CCT found out to their cost.

Anna Rose