CIPD forecasts an even more gloomy year for jobs

2009 could shape up to be the worst year for jobs in two decades, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

The warning is contained in the CIPD’s annual Barometer Report, with predictions of job losses totalling 600,000 in 2009.  The gloomy news is deepened by additional data this year, published in the report, highlighting the poor pay prospects expected by UK employees in the year ahead.

For the first time, the Barometer Survey includes new Pay Attitudes figures that reveal the opinions of 2,604 employees, showing more than half the respondents (56%) expect to receive either less than they did last year, no pay rise or, among a small proportion of them, a pay cut in 2009.  

The survey shows:

- 28% of employees believe that they will not receive a pay increase in 2009;

- 26% predict that they will receive a pay rise, but that it will be lower than the one they got in 2008;

- 23% think that they will get the same pay rise as last year’s;

- 11% predict a higher pay rise;

- 2% think they will see a cut in their salary.