(Alliance News) - One in three companies expect to make redundancies by the end of September in a blow to Britain's hopes of economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis, a new survey has found.
The 33% figure – revealed in a survey by human resources body the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and recruiter Adecco Group – represents a rise from 22% of companies shown in the groups' spring quarterly report.
The latest survey suggests the jobs market will continue to shrink through the summer quarter, with the number of employers expecting to hire workers falling further below the number planning for redundancies.
The report said its disparity marker between the two categories of employers fell four points from the spring quarter to minus 8, the lowest it has been since the survey's current methodology was adopted in 2013.
"The survey data also suggests that the redundancy activity will be broad-based, with IT, manufacturing and construction sectors the most likely to be affected," CIPD's senior labour market analyst Gerwyn Davies said in the report.
It comes as analysts fear a major jobs decline in the autumn involving furloughed staff, as the Government's job retention scheme winds down towards its October termination.
The latest CIPD-Adecco survey also showed employers had adopted a number of responses to cope with the pandemic.
More than four in 10 or 42% had applied recruitment freezes, the sharpest examples coming in the hospitality sector with 65%, business services at 54%, and in IT with 52%.
In seeking to preserve jobs, 18% of employers instituted pay cuts, 26% bonus cuts, and 33% froze or delayed pay rises. Pay cuts were most prevalent in construction at 44%, business services at 30%, and hospitality at 29%.
Other responses included 38% of respondents introducing new or more flexible working arrangements, 23% making cuts to training budgets), and 54% making temporary lay-offs through the Job Retention Scheme. In addition, 32% terminated of agency or temporary worker contracts.
Additionally, 69% of employers extended home-working significantly across their workforce, especially in the fields of public administration and other public sector areas at 85%, business services at 84%, information and communication at 81%, and education at 71%.
As expected, fewer employers in hospitality, 46%, and transport and storage, 53%, were able to increase home-working.
The figures come with the UK's economy expected to officially enter recession this week, having fallen by a record 20% in the spring quarter.
source: PA
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