Public and Private Sector Employment Across the UK Since the Financial Crisis

In this brief, the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute shows that since the 2008 financial crisis, London has been relatively protected from public sector job losses compared to other regions in the UK. This means that whilst London and the South East have increased their share of public sector jobs from 23.7% to 25.1% of the UK total, the North of England has seen its share drop from 25.2% to 24.2%. Whilst one of the main justifications for austerity has been that the public sector ‘crowds out’ private sector employment, the brief shows that the region with the fastest private sector employment growth – London – has also seen the smallest reduction in its proportion of public sector employment. This suggests that public sector jobs can be complementary to rather than in conflict with the goal of building an equitable and sustainable economy for the UK