UK biz prejudiced against public sector staff

Not equipped to work for us

The Coalition government's hope that the private sector will soak up staff laid off from the public sector took a blow today from a survey showing more than half of UK businesses would not employ people from the public sector.

A survey of 500 firms by the FT and Barclays Corporate found 57 per cent said they were not interested in taking on ex-public sector staff and 52 per cent said such people did not have the skills required to work for them.

Some 57 per cent of UK firms expect to create new jobs, if sales hold up, but three-quarters of those surveyed do not believe job creation will take place on a big enough scale to offset public sector losses.

London firms are doing best at job creation – 78 per cent of firms in the capital expect to create jobs. Northern Ireland and Wales came at the bottom of the job-creation league.

More on public sector discrimination here (registration required). ®