UK workers hit by recession, study reveals

Date: 1st June 2009

UK workers have been hit by pay cuts and reductions in hours as a result of the recession, a new survey has shown.

A poll by Keep Britain Working, a campaign to preserve jobs, shows that such measures have affected 54 per cent of the country's workforce.

In addition, a similar number of people, which include staff at sole traders and partnerships, are pessimistic about their future employment prospects.

Founder of the Keep Britain Working Campaign James Reed said: "The UK workforce has demonstrated unprecedented flexibility during this recession, allowing organisations a whole range of cost-cutting responses rather than relying solely on redundancies."

He added that UK workers appeared to be "making common cause" with their managers in a bid to keep themselves in employment.

Despite the recession, figures published by the Forum of Private Business last month suggested that confidence among smaller companies was beginning to rise.