Official figures issued today reveal overall levels of public sector employment plummeted by 235,000 in the last three months - following the reclassification to the private sector of further education colleges and sixth form college corporations. 

The effect of this reconfiguration on local government employment figures was a reduction of 56,000 posts to just under 2.6 million workers - while central government staffing figures fell by 175,000. This caused total UK public sector employment to contract for the eleventh successive quarter - to a total of more than 5.6 million workers.