Shocking statistics emerged recently, published by the Sunday Times:
- Although there are 841,000 UK job vacancies, there are 9.3 million (eligible) people neither in work nor looking for a job – this is an increase of 713,000 since Covid
- Young people are leaving education and going straight onto sickness benefit
- There are 872,000 aged 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training
Hence Professor Paul Gregg of Bath University concluded: ‘Britain is an outlier among developed nations for not bouncing back after Covid’.
So, having woken up to listen to more depressing threats of UK public sector strike action, one was reminded of the above two posts, especially in the context of HMG’s main aim for ‘Growth, Growth, Growth’.
More and more tax-payers’ money is being poured into public sector, money-costing areas, albeit without saying just how it is to be spent and then monitored – at the same time, there seems little extra support being offered to private sector, money-making organisations to produce the growth on which the nation relies.
Key findings from the above sources included:
- Total public sector employment grew to 5,841,000 in 2024, reaching the highest level since figures started being published in 1999.
- From 2023 to 2024, the number of public sector employees increased by 116,000, a rate of 318 new public sector positions per day.
- The public sector accounted for 17.6% of total employment in 2024, the highest level since 2012
- The NHS saw the largest increase from 2023 to 2024 with 65,000 additional staff:
- Total NHS headcount reached 2.03 million in 2024, the highest level on record and 72% more than in 1999
- The number of employees in the NHS has increased 30.2% from 2010 to 2024.
- The Civil Service had the second largest increase from 2023 to 2024, growing by 24,000
- At the same time HM forces shrank by 2,000 in 2024 to 148,000 – this is its smallest level since at least 1900
- The NHS was 13.7 times larger than HM forces in 2024, the largest ratio on record
- The Civil Service was 3.7 times larger than HM forces in 2024
- In the five years from 2019 to 2024, public sector headcount increased by 531,000, or 10%.
However, another re-assuring article alongside the Reeves’ budget announced that the Government is:
- Taking concrete steps to fix the foundations and rebuild Britain’s public services to make them fit for generations to come
- Spending more than £2 billion to upgrade NHS technology and £1 billion to deal with a massive NHS maintenance backlog:
- To give patients the right care, in the right location, with the right technology
- To move us from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention
- The NHS will also deliver 2% productivity growth.
Prime Minister, Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer, thus said:
- We’re fixing the foundations to deliver change – by fixing the NHS and rebuilding Britain, while ensuring working people don’t face higher taxes in their payslips
- Yesterday’s budget marks a huge step towards that – setting us on the path to make our public services fit for the future.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL