As the outlook for 2009 worsens, tens of thousands of jobs could subsist axed in the British public and personal sectors, a cabinet minister tells The Independent

By Nigel Morris, Ben Russell and Alistair Dawber

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Britain faces an unemployment “bloodbath” in the new year with many tens of thousands of jobs axed in the public and private sectors, according to a cabinet minister. Senior body politic figures are braced for a dramatic lengthening in dole queues in the first quarter of 2009, as employers delay announcing redundancies until after Christmas.

Thousands of civil servants and town hall workers will share the pain as commonwealth efficiency savings bite, during the time that struggling retailers and manufacturing assiduity are heading for heavy redundancies.

The ranks of the idle will be swollen by up to 27,000 stick from Woolworths, which closes its last stores on 5 January, and 1,400 employees of the furniture retailer MFI, which shut last week. The Cabinet expects job losses to speed in the harsh trading terms of 2009. One cabinet member told The Independent: “We know there will be a bloodbath of do job-work cuts in January and February. A lot of companies are holding back till for Christmas.”

Contradicting saloon-bar wisdom, which says public jobs are safe, the notorious sector will not have being immune from waves of redundancies, with unions omen of more than 5,000 planned job losses among town hall workers alone. They could be the tip of the iceberg as councils face tough financial settlements from central government.

Oldham ministry is axing 543 jobs while Denbighshire council wants to cut 450 posts. Northumberland County Council is preparing to give out 800 employees with 510 going at neighbouring Newcastle City Council. There will be 400 staff cut in Peterborough and Aberdeen, 300 from Wolverhampton Council with a further 150 nearest year, up to 190 posts lost in Coventry and 100 in North Somerset. Other councils planning redundancies comprise Worcester (84), Amber Valley (72), Swindon (up to 50) and Ealing (40).

Elsewhere in the public sector up to 2,000 mainly white-collar posts will go at Transport for London.

Seventy hospital staff in Whitehaven, Cumbria, have corrupt their jobs and the league Unison is warning that NHS staff could be under threat from long-term spending cuts. Widespread redundancies are expected in the Civil Service, in what place union leaders fright nearly 10,000 jobs will custom in courts and the prison and probation services because of cuts at the Ministry of Justice. An estimated 3,500 in greater numbers will be axed to meet efficiency savings at HM Revenue and Customs.

The digit of people out of work stood at 1.86 million continue month and may have already passed two million.

The Federation of Small Businesses forecasts that 30,000 small firms could fold in 2009, with the loss of 160,000 jobs. Its spokesman, Stephen Alambritis, said: “It will be a very, very difficult year — there’sitting a foreboding here and there February and March in particular.”

Although transport is considered a able sector in a recession, that has not stopped National Express announcing plans to hut 300 posts. EWS, the Doncaster-based rail freight company, is in conference with rail harmony TSSA about axing 530 jobs.

Insolvency experts believe another 10 to 15 well-known sell in small quantities chains could follow Woolworths into the history books as shoppers rein in expenditure.

Speculation is rife that the music retailer Zavvi, fashion group The Officers Club and the sportswear exit JJB are title with regard to a financial crunch.

The UK’s two pharmaceutical giants, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and AstraZeneca have flagged up big redundancies. AstraZeneca said last month that the first of 250 manufacturing jobs will be lost nearest year, while GSK has said it will close pair factories with in the same proportion that manifold as 620 redundancies in Dartford and 200 in Barnard Castle.

Brian Strutton, the national secretary of the GMB, reported that branches up and down the people were reporting councils planning to cut jobs in 2009: “Reasons given go from the tightening of government grants to the credit crunch, to the Icelandic banks effect.”

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union, which represents civil servants, declared: “Budget cuts, planned when the economy was in better shape, will not only result in the Government adding to the growing disused, but furthermore mine service lying-in at a time of principally need.”

Already 63,000 jobs have gone in the City of London, with more redundancies coming in the financial sector.

Abbey, which is now owned by Spain’s Banco Santander, has said that it will cut 1,900 UK jobs next year with Credit Suisse and HSBC expected to lose 1,150 positions in the first quarter.

Stephen Overell, the mate director of the Work Foundation think-tank, said short-lived workers and new staff had so far borne the brunt of job cuts. But he warned: “It is going to get a great quantity worse before there is any chance of the desired end of recovery.”

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