KPMG: One in two UK firms plan job cuts

Bleak economic conditions have prompted 53 per cent of organisations to examine their wage bill, survey reveals

More than half of UK organisations are planning to make job cuts and freeze recruitment over the coming months, a new KPMG survey has found.

Some 53 per cent of senior public and private sector executives quizzed in KPMG’s quarterly National Business Confidence Survey said they planned to cut headcount in response to the dour economic climate. This is nearly twice as many as KPMG’s last survey three months ago (29 per cent).

A similar number, 52 per cent said they were planning to implement recruitment freezes.

Malcolm Edge, regional chairman for KPMG in the North, said the widespread redundancy programmes seen recently in the financial services and housebuilding sectors may be a harbinger for other sectors.

He also noted that 80 per cent of organisations that took place in the survey were based outside of London, signalling that the credit crunch may finally have hit home across the UK's regions.

“The clouds that were on the horizon when we first conducted this survey back in early spring are now right overhead, with businesses now feeling the impact of this so-called ‘perfect storm’ of rising inflation, tightening credit conditions and plummeting consumer confidence," Edge said.

“With six out of ten businesses looking to cut costs, staff redundancies may seem like the obvious, albeit painful, solution.”