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It might sound counter-intuitive to suggest there needs to be investment as we experience the most significant period of public sector austerity in decades. That said, economic recovery isn't simply predicated on cuts, but also on growth – although I'm not seeking to duck the issue that cuts in public spending are necessary). Dean Shoesmith is executive head of HR at Sutton and Merton LBCs and president of the PPMA Interestingly, a BBC survey published last month reveals that more than half the British public would be prepared to pay more tax to reduce the country's financial deficit – and while this might help, economic growth has to be the bedrock of true economic recovery. So far, economic growth has been fragile in the UK – and, according to some economists, the second quarter's growth of 1.3% was largely reflective of the final remnants of public sector spend, and the third quarter slowed to just 0.7%. Add to the mix the looming increase in VAT to 20%, and there has to be concern about the impact on consumer spend. According to Treasury estimates, public sector services stand to lose 600,000 jobs as a result of cuts to public spending – although the big question is, can the private sector absorb all those people? Given the latest recruitment industry research, the answer is, in all probability, no. Recruiters Hays and Totaljobs.com have both recently conducted research surveys on the UK jobs market. They find the contemporary market is typified by the usual ‘churn' of jobs, reflecting employees leaving one job for another – but there is no evidence of new jobs in the market. An archetypal hallmark of economic growth would be emerging new jobs, not just replacing people already in the market. In my view, stimulating growth in local economies is a real necessity to kick-start the UK economy. If new, small, medium enterprises (SMEs) can be developed, or existing SMEs business expanded, this should lead to the creation of new jobs – the corollary of which is fewer people reliant on state benefits, and those people who take up those new jobs would contribute to the state through taxation to the exchequer… all of which could be ploughed back into local economies to create further growth. Alongside this, there is a real challenge to ensure workforce skills are sufficient for people to move across jobs and from one sector to another. Public sector transformation programmes should seize opportunities to remodel workforces and create entry-level employment and training opportunities – this recession has had a profoundly-adverse impact on people aged 16 to 24 – 926,000 of whom are currently unemployed. I believe it would be a very wise future investment to create new entry-level jobs while also making reductions through workforce transformation.

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WHITEHALL

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