Despite some signs indicating that the worst of the recession has passed, a report from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the Harvey Nash recruitment consultancy indicates that a lack of confidence in market conditions means that pay is unlikely to rise in the coming year for both private and public sector employees.
At the same time, 62% of companies polled said that they had kept their bonus structures in place during the recession while the number of companies deciding to stop all recruitment fell from 61% in the Spring to 37% now. In fact, unemployment has not risen as quickly as had been predicted as many companies took the decision to focus on reducing pay and working hours rather than jobs.
Source: bbc.co.uk/16.11.09