A global study by a ‘Big Four' accountancy giant has highlighted how austerity job cuts have disproportionately affected female local authority workers in the UK.

The Ernst & Young Worldwide Index of Women as Public Sector Leaders study reveals that women staff have made the bulk of 270,000 public sector job losses since the coalition came to power in 2010, leaving female unemployment at a 25-year high.  Twice as many women than men are set to be affected by the 710,000 forecast public sector job cuts by 2017, the authors note.

Dr Nemat Shafik, a former UK civil servant and deputy director of the International Monetary Fund said:  ‘That's one of the things that worries me most about austerity – wome are more likely to exit the labour market.  That's a huge loss of talent.'

Among councils in the south east of England women accounted for more than three quarters (76%) of the number of job losses – a figure that covers 100% of all redundancies in 19 councils across England and Wales, the authors found.

The report also shows that women only account for 35% of senior jobs in the public sector in the UK, despite accounting for two-thirds of the workforce.

However, the ratio of women in leadership roles also varies widely across developed and merging markets. In Japan, women make up 42% of the public sector but only 3% are leaders. In Brazil, less than half of public sector employees are women, but still account for 32% of leaders.

Björn Conway, UK partner government and public services at Ernst & Young, said: ‘In our globalising world, diversity is seen not only as an ambition but crucial to delivering more effective government and increased economic competitiveness.

‘But while diverse teams are proven to stimulate innovation and new ways of problem solving, there is an increasing acknowledgment that much work remains to be done before governments and business become truly representative of the societies in which they operate and serve.'