Fresh job losses will cast shadow over election

Almost half of firms say they may have to make redundancies by Easter

Gordon Brown will be forced to fight the general election against the backdrop of accelerating job losses, a report warns today.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) says that unemployment rates will increase sharply as the public sector feels the impact of cost-cutting. Dole queues will increase to 2.8 million in the second half of the year, a rise of up to 50,000 a month.

The forecast, which dashes hopes that Britain is poised to make a strong recovery from recession, discovered that more than a quarter of firms are still planning redundancies.