For the first time in 12 years, employment growth in the public sector is expected to match the private sector. This is also a boom for diversity, as two-thirds of public sector staff are women.
This is according to the CIPDs and Adecco Group Labour Market Outlook which found that high confidence in the public sector will most likely lead to higher employment growth.
Alex Fleming, country head and president of staffing and solutions at the Adecco Group UK and Ireland, said:
The number of women in work is likely to continue to rise which is promising, as a strong focus on diversity and inclusion is proven to be highly beneficial to organisations.
Confidence in the public sector grew from +14 to +21, the highest its been since 2008, the confidence of the private sector has dropped from +25 to +21.
Gerwyn Davies, senior labour market analyst for the CIPD said;
After more than a decade of contraction and pain, the public sector is now very much part of the good news employment story.
However, we should not lose sight of the net loss of more than 300,000 jobs in the public sector since 2010 and the challenges this has presented public service employers and employees in delivering crucial public services. Public sector organisations must prioritise managing and developing their workforces to empower and motivate existing public service employees, not just increase headcount.
Mr Davies explained that all main political parties during the December 2019 general election making spending commitments to the sector helped to raise confidence in the area.
However, private sector wages are expected to rise higher than the public sector, as over the next 12 months public sector employers are expecting an increase of 1.5 per cent compared to private sector firms employees who are likely to increase by 2 per cent.
Both sectors found it hard to recruit for professional occupations (53 per cent) of employers); associate professional and technical occupations (16 per cent) and managers, directors and senior officials (11 per cent).
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
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