Employers expect more jobs to go

BRITAIN'S employers expect to continue shedding jobs next year at a time when unemployment is likely to be above 3 million.

Supervisory and administrative staff are expected to bear the brunt of the cuts, but there will be more redundancies at all levels, according to a report published today .

About 20 per cent of employers expect to make do with fewer top managers, 30 per cent with fewer professional and technical staff and 39 per cent with fewer managers and manual staff. About 48 per cent believe they will need fewer supervisory and administrative employees, the study by consultants Mercer Fraser and magazine Personnel Today found in a survey of 400 personnel managers and directors.

Only a small minority calculated that they would need to take on more staff in any category. The only exception was in professional and technical grades where 15 per cent of companies believe they will need more personnel.

Respondents predicted average pay rises of 4.3 per cent next year, compared with 5 per cent this year and 8.5 per cent in 1991. Top management's pay is forecast to rise by 4.7 per cent next year, compared with 4.3 per cent for professional and technical staff and 4 per cent for manual workers.

This year 22.5 per cent of firms either froze or deferred pay rises, but for 1993, only 9.5 per cent of firms are budgeting for pay standstills.

Electronics and information technology companies are planning the highest rises at 5.1 per cent. Bottom of the league is the public sector, forecasting increases of 3.4 per cent, although the Government is seeking to keep rises in this sector to between zero and 2 per cent.

However the survey found companies were reasonably confident about the future with 56 per cent expecting prospects to stabilise and 24 per cent predicting the business environment to improve.