The impact of the recession on the UK’s workforce has been much greater than headline unemployment figures would indicate, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

The research shows that 1.31m people were made redundant during the recession - double the net fall in employment and equal to 4.4% of people in work before the downturn.

The study also records 6.2m new Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants between April 2008 and November 2009 – 7.5 times the rise in the unemployment claimant count during the recession.

Two out of three people had been made redundant during the recession and subsequently found work were paid less in their new job, with the average pay penalty of 28%.
 
Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the CIPD, says: “Although the scale of job loss in the recession is much less than originally feared and much less than might have been expected given the scale of the contraction in the economy, it is evident that the direct experience of redundancy, repeat spells of unemployment and pay penalties has nonetheless been widespread.

“Moreover, given that redundancy also affects the families, friends and former colleagues of those made redundant the full experience of the jobs recession has been wider still. This is likely to have a much greater impact on perceptions of job security and consumer confidence during the recovery than the simple ‘unemployment situation is better than feared’ story of the moment would suggest.”