Public sector accountants to hit job market
PUBLIC SECTOR spending cuts by the government could force over 16,500 accountants and finance staff into unemployment, according to new research.
Recruitment firm Ambition said with the government’s planned £6.2bn public spending cuts, accounting and finance departments are expecting they will have to shed the jobs, which currently make up 2.3 per cent of the public sector workforce.
UK managing director at Ambition, Tim Gilbert, said: “The government has had to make cuts to start controlling the deficit but there’s a real danger that many of the professionals forced out of the public sector will have nowhere to go to.”
Ambition argued that the current job boom in the banking industry won’t offset the cuts as the City does not want professionals from a public sector background.
“But there shouldn’t be an expectation from the public that the nascent recovery in private businesses will accommodate the public sector fall-out,” said Gilbert.
Average salaries amongst public sector accountants is £40,100, which Ambition said will equate to a £173m loss in tax revenue a year if the cuts become too deep.