More than two million job vacancies will need to be filled in the public sector by 2015-16 despite the cuts in Government spending, according to a new report.
The positions are likely to come from people retiring, illness and workers moving to other jobs, said the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) and totaljobs.com.
The report said huge savings could be made if public sector organisations changed employment practices, such as advertising vacancies more widely than just internally.
Richard Greenwood, managing economist at CEBR, said: “Even in the face of shrinking headcount, the public sector will still have to recruit in droves in the coming years owing to natural churn.
“At a time of intense scrutiny of all facets of public sector spending, it is more critical than ever that all cost-efficiencies are realised.”
John Salt, director of totaljobs.com, said: “It’s clear from the research that the future of employment in the public sector isn’t as dire as previously thought. However, changes need to be made to utilise these potential savings for our predictions to be realised.
“We’re calling for a greater transparency in ways in which public sector recruitment is conducted, and the report demonstrates that online is a viable and, importantly, a cost-effective way of delivering this.”
