Highly paid workers quit their jobs for public sector

Figures from recruitment company Hays show 63 per cent of public sector employers have noticed an increase in applications from the private sector.

Up to half of public sector organisations said they had skill shortages they needed to address in order to deliver high quality services. And more than 80 per cent of those said they would be best filled by private sector workers.

The migration from private to public sector, which has accelerated during the recession, reverses the trend during the boom years.

The survey, Capturing Commercial Talent, asked 308 public sector employers what they wanted from job applicants and what they could gain from employing private sector workers.

Andy Robling, director of public services at Hays, said: "There's a perception that the public sector is a more secure place to work and sometimes the salary difference isn't that extreme.

"We're seeing an increase in people moving over to the public sector because of the extreme nature of the recession." He said a lot of people out of work were taking as much as a 60 per cent cut in salary.

Mass redundancies, growing work loads and the cull of final salary pension schemes means that thousands of staff are disillusioned with the private sector. Many are also fed up working long hours for "David Brent"-style bosses.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the number of jobs in "education, health and public administration" increased by 168,000 in the year to the end of March while those in "finance and business services" fell by 187,000.

At the same time pay in the public sector is rising by an average of 3.7 per cent a year compared with 2.1 per cent in the private sector.

Although public spending cutbacks are feared over the next five years, key jobs such as teachers are seen as harder to cut than those in private companies.

Migration away from the private sector appears to be benefiting all areas of London's public services.

Sian Thomas, director of NHS Employers, said the number of applications for NHS jobs had more than doubled since January from 40,000 to more than 100,000, while the number of vacancies remained the same. Last month there were 9,034 full-time administrative and clerical vacancies in the NHS - a small drop from 9,052 in January.

She said the advantage of recruiting private sector applicants is that they were "job ready", had a commercial background and diverse skills. "People who normally would have gone for jobs in the private sector are now applying for NHS jobs," she said.

The Training and Development Agency for Schools, which trains and recruits teachers, said the quality of applications had improved. Almost two thirds of entrants have at least a 2.1 degree, compared with about half 10 years ago, and a third of those training to become teachers are over the age of 30 - indicating that applicants come from different sectors.

A spokesman for the organisation said: "We have seen an increasing interest from professionals and bankers applying to train to teach."

London borough councils have seen a change in the calibre of job applicants. Westminster council has had a surge in applications and "speculative CVs" from private sector workers.

But others warn of big changes ahead in the public sector. Ian Brinkey, associate director of the Work Foundation, said: "With public finances diminishing the public sector will be dependent on the private sector just to get it through the next five to 10 years."

It's short-term loss for long-term gain'

Gemini Padman was told it would be "career suicide" to give up her well-paid role as a finance manager at multinational GE Healthcare in favour of a job in the health service.

But the 38-year-old mother of three was in no doubt the pay cut would be more than compensated by an improved work-life balance and greater opportunities for advancement.

She swapped her £80,000-a-year post at GE Healthcare's headquarters in Amersham for a £50,000 role as head of finance at West Essex primary care trust in Ilford.

As well as being much closer to her home in Epping, it means an end to the 12-hour days which meant she had to leave her two-year-old son, Ethen, behind at 7am and not expect to see him again until 8pm.

The trust has a workplace nursery, meaning she can drop him off at 9am and pick him up when she finishes work at 5pm or even earlier. She also gets home in time to cook evening meals for her daughters — Shanay, 10, and Tanya, 20.

Mrs Padman said her husband, Sobhanan, a 48-year-old engineer, is happy with her move. She expects to be earning a similar salary to her private-sector level within three years and then "surpass it quickly".

She said: "The management team here is just as good if not better than at GE. We don't just sit down and drink coffee all day. There is bureaucracy but that is the same in any big organisation, private or public sector. It's a question of short-term loss for long-term gain. The whole ethos in the public sector is so much better for working women. You can't put a price on that."