Recession has 'deep impact' on jobs

December's unemployment figures were better than expected

The impact of the recession on unemployment is deeper than headline figures suggest, a report suggests.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) say that 1.3 million people were made redundant during the recession.

The study says that is double the fall in employment and equivalent to 4.4% of people in work before the downturn.

It also says that two-thirds of people made redundant were paid 28% less when they managed to find another job.

The report also highlights the difficulty of getting full-time employment.

It says that there were 6.2 million fresh claims for jobseeker's allowance between April 2008 and November 2009. That is seven-and-a-half times the rise in the unemployment claimant count during the recession.

The CIPD's economic adviser, John Philpott, said: "Although the scale of job loss in the recession is much less than originally feared... it is evident that the direct experience of redundancy, repeat spells of unemployment and pay penalties has nonetheless been widespread."

"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," he added.

"Every job loss is a tragedy," said employment minister Jim Knight. "What the figures in this report highlight is that thousands of people have found work very quickly through jobcentres, with 70% of people leaving unemployment benefit within six months."