And ministers highlight studies by think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which found that men working in the public sector in the West Midlands are paid on average seven per cent more than men in similar roles in the private sector - while women receive a 15 per cent pay boost.
The difficulty, according to the Treasury, is that public sector wages are usually set nationally and are based on conditions in the labour market in the wealthier south east region rather than the North or Midlands, where salaries in the private sector are lower.
The preliminary findings of the Hays Career Outlook Survey (undertaken in Nov/Dec 2011) show that although those working in the public sector are fiercely defensive of their pensions, the pull of the private sector and its perceived higher job security is attractive to job seekers.
Other early findings from the research show over three-quarters (84%) of public sector employers are concerned that they will struggle to keep skilled workers, and almost half (46%) say they will be unable to attract the skilled people needed for the twelve months ahead.
Interestingly, the standard is becoming more prevalent in the private sector, notably in finance and engineering, than in the
public sector. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has begun a process of defining an international electronic data storage standard with the French national standard as input that may be published in mid-2005.
The
public sector was responsible for only 13% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) while the private sector contributed the remainder of the GDP.
Finally, we were reminded that the
public sector accounts for c23 per cent of total jobs.
Central government was the most popular
public sector organisation, followed by education, according to the report by recruitment experts Bernard Hodes Group.
"Together with the onset of
public sector cutbacks, the risk of an employment slowdown appears finely balanced."
This article focuses on an important determinant of the government's contribution to private sector productivity--the level of human capital employed in the
public sector. If government produces a crucial public input for the private sector--we might call it "governance"--using both physical and human capital, it must compete for these resources with the private sector.
In this paper we assess the role of
public sector employment and wage growth in aggregate black/white wage convergence.