Women and agency staff will be hit hardest as numbers are slashed

WOMEN are likely to bear the brunt of the massive cuts in public spending anticipated in Yorkshire and across Britain over the coming years.

Studies show nearly three-quarters of all public sector workers are women, with particularly high numbers in teaching, healthcare, and, crucially, administrative functions. Analysts believe it is these back office staff, along with agency workers and part-time employees – overwhelmingly female in number – where the deepest cuts are likely to fall.

Alan Hughes, of public sector union Unison, said: "With 70 per cent of our local government workforce being female, the impact on women will be all too real.

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"One issue is that the vast majority of people working the part-time jobs are women, which sometimes makes them an easier target for employers looking to cut costs. They will often think it's easier to get rid of someone working 15 hours a week – but the fact is those 15 hours could be vital to the well-being of a family reliant on that income."

More than 80 per cent of all new jobs created for women between 1998 and 2007 were in state or state-reliant sectors. With public bodies highly unlikely to be recruiting in the coming years, the majority of job opportunities for women could simply disappear.

"We've been holding informal talks with chief executives of various authorities for some time now," Mr Hughes said. "It's pretty clear that the first step across most of the public sector will be a jobs freeze. The other impact will be that all councils will be looking to cut back on agency staff and again the majority of those staff are women."

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