Creative measures may only delay job cuts

A worrying piece in Personnel Today quotes both John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and Richard Lambert, director-general of the CBI with the same observation: that the much touted creative alternatives to redundancy (e.g. 4 day weeks and job sharing) may only serve to delay redundancies rather than prevent them altogether. It may seem like stating the obvious, but these solutions only prevent redundancies if the businesses deploying them are able to return to good profitability in a relatively short timescale. With evidence from the Bank of England confirming what many have feared, namely that the recession in the UK is deeper and will last for longer that predicted, the question is: how long can businesses hold-out before more severe cuts become essential.