According to research from the CIPD, job cuts look set to damage the recovery of the UK’s public sector.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) says that public sector cutbacks mean that more job cuts could be on the horizon, despite an apparent emergence from the recession.

The latest research from the CIPD in conjunction with KPMG has revealed that the number of redundancies is expected to double this quarter compared to the final three months of 2009, as employees across all sectors plan to cut their workforce by 6%.

Out of the survey of 700 employers, public sector forecasts looked particularly bleak as a third of employers aim to reduce headcount in order to cut costs, with the public administration and defence sectors being particularly hard hit.

On the other hand, the private sector was slightly more positive about the future, with a slight rise in staff numbers – the first since the start of the recession, as well as the possibility of a small rise in private sector pay.

Alan Downey, Head of Public Sector at KPMG, commented: “These figures clearly show that the starting gun for public-sector recession has been fired. It is now only a matter of time before we are faced with the deepest and most prolonged cuts in public expenditure that anyone can remember.”

Gail Cartmail, Unite Assistant General Secretary for the public sector, said that public sector job cuts would have a devastating effect on local economies.

Ms Cartmail said that in cities such as Newcastle where there is a high volume of public sector employment the economy would suffer with reduced taxation, reduced spending and “ironically a greater reliance on public services such as job centres.”

She added: “Public services and their staff are integral to the UK’s recovery from the global recession caused by reckless banking practices. Organisations, such as Oxfam, and numerous leading economists caution against cutting public services, as they view recovery as being reliant on the stimulus and support public expenditure provides.”