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Deficit plans will add to job losses, warns economist,  Financial Times

10 June 2010

Moves to slash the deficit will stall any recovery in the jobs market and push unemployment up to nearly 3m, one of the country's leading labour economists will warn today.

John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, has revised up his unemployment forecast as a result of the emphasis on spending cuts rather than tax rises.

Until recently the institute had estimated that unemployment , currently 2.51m or 8 per cent of the workforce, would peak at just over 2.65m this year. Now it forecasts the total will rise to 2.95m in the second half of 2012 and remain close to that until 2015.

Mr Philpott also now expects the public sector to lose 725,000 jobs over the next five years, up from his estimate of 500,000 made before the general election.

• View John Philpott's profile