Redundancy estimates

The impact of the recession on redundancies has been greater than expected, according to a survey by XpertHR.  In January 2009 58% of employers anticipated job cuts, but by July it had risen to 67%.  On average employers’ predictions were short by one third.

With the economic situation changing so quickly most employers cut some jobs early on to give themselves some time to work on cutting other costs, such as freezing recruitment (up 20%), redeploying staff (up 19%) and encouraging flexible working (up 14%).

Looking to the future, when the economic situation improves, previous experience has shown that being cautious in cutting jobs puts the employer in a better position to recover.  Retaining skills through redeployment and flexible working means organisations are able to respond quickly to the inevitable upturn.