U.K.: 1 in 10 Public Sector Jobs To Be Cut

The Mail Online reports 1 in 10 public sector jobs are to go. The government coalition is expects=ing 500,000 public sector jobs to be lost as a result of the drastic spending cuts.

"Danny Alexander let slip the forecast when he was spotted driving into the Treasury with an open copy of the Comprehensive Spending Review on his lap.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury - who has been nicknamed Beaker after the Muppets character - was reading the document, which was caught on camera by waiting photographers.
It laid out details about the likely effect of spending cuts on the public sector as well as the coalition's plans to pour billions into tackling climate change."
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"In the second quarter of 2010, both private sector and total employment experienced their largest increases on record.  However, the OBR's Budget forecast was for a reduction in public sector workforce numbers of 490,000 by 2014-2015

It will be for each public sector employer to determine the workforce implications of spending settlements in their areas
The fact that both were photographed on the same day has sparked speculation that the papers were deliberately 'leaked' to soften the blow ahead of the official announcements.

The document stresses that tackling the deficit now is 'unavoidable' and will ultimately benefit the public and private sectors.

It warns it will 'inevitably impact' on workers because the paybill in Whitehall accounts for such a huge proportion of departmental spending.

Action on pay - a freeze for the lowest paid is already in place - will help reduce job losses, the papers say.

But they make clear that the Government has adopted the Office for Budget Responsibility's forecast that 490,000 jobs in the public sector will go by 2014/15.

Each public sector employer will have to 'determine the workforce implications of spending settlements', the document says.

It adds: 'Government will do everything they can to mitigate the impact of redundancies'."