Survey Watch

Redundancies look set to rise sharply in the first quarter of 2011 across all sectors of the economy but particularly so in the public sector, according to the Winter 2010-11 CIPD/KPMG Labour Market Outlook (LMO) survey of 750 HR professionals. Overall employment levels are heading for a fall in 2011 – the net employment index fell to -3 from +11 in the autumn 2010 survey. The LMO also looks at average redundancy costs and pay intentions for the rest of 2011.

The quality of management is crucial to lift employee morale and engagement at work, says the CIPD, as findings from its Winter 2010-11 Employee Outlook survey highlight salary and job security concerns.

Investment in HR as a discipline has fallen dramatically in comparison with last year but investment in people development as whole remains a top priority according to Corporate Learning Priorities Survey 2011 from the Henley Business School. Talent retention and managing change are the other two top priorities.

Despite last year’s gloomy predictions, the graduate labour market actually seems to be picking up with number of graduate vacancies increasing according to the latest survey from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR).

Overall, 58% of the 3,000 respondents to the CIPD’s survey Employee Attitudes to Pay 2010 expect a pay rise in 2011, a significant worsening in outlook from last year when 67% expected an increase. The likelihood that employees will receive a pay freeze has also increased significantly with a third predicting no change to their salary compared to a quarter last year.