Leading public finance economists have this week questioned whether the estimated 800,000 government employees forecast to lose their jobs between 2014/15 and 2018/19 have the right transferable skills to be hired by private sector bosses.

A briefing paper from the renowned Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) issued today finds the workforce cuts estimated by the Office for Budget Responsibility would ‘dwarf past reductions in general government employment' – reducing the share of public sector staff to 15% of all workers, its lowest share since at least 1971.

But under plans set out in the March 2015 Budget and the Conservative manifesto, government employment is set to faster further reductions than those made by the Coalition, the IFS researchers noted.