Government statisticians have called for the impact of council job losses to be monitored, warning some parts of the country struggling to emerge from the recession will be hit disproportionately hard by spending cuts.

An Office of National Statistics (ONS) study into the impact of the recession - which lasted six successive quarters from April 2008 until the end of 2009 - concludes local government job cuts taking effect this financial year should be analysed. Particular focus should be paid to areas ‘where a significant proportion of the workforce are employed in the public sector,' the authors note.