Council cuts hit women hardest

Women made up two in three of all council staff who lost their jobs in the past 15 months – and in some councils made up all job cuts, the GMB union has said.

About 129,000 posts were axed by English and Welsh authorities between the first quarter of 2010 and the second quarter of this year, GMB research showed.

Women were hardest-hit across South-east England, suffering 75.8 per cent of cuts in the region.

The 19 councils at which women made up all of the losses included Oxford, West Somerset, Hammersmith and Fulham, Powys and Canterbury.