Planned Cuts and Job Losses

UNISON Scotland's latest survey of budget cuts and job losses shows planned cuts of at least £962m and job losses of nearly 18,000. These are not projections of the sort that policy think tanks and others have churned out, but actual plans approved by public bodies across Scotland for this financial year, with some spill over to the following year.

The biggest cuts are in local government, with £535m taken out of budgets and consequential job losses totalling 11,936. In health, £278m of cuts with consequential job losses of 4461.

The balance comes from police, housing and universities. The plans in these sectors have not been finalised. In addition, voluntary sector providers of public services have been badly hit with over 500 job losses so far.

These figures only cover the services UNISON organises in so the total public sector job loss next year will be greater. These numbers come on top of some 13,000 job losses last year.

In total, this survey shows that UNISON Scotland's original projections of 50-60,000 public sector job losses over the CSR cycle looks about right. And we also know from the Treasury model that for every public sector job loss there is at least one job loss in the private sector.

Job losses on this scale will continue to blight the Scottish economy. There is an alternative, Public Works.