The number of people employed at serviced offices in Northampton and other workplaces around the country has not been reduced as severely as was previously feared.
This is according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which also forecast a longer recovery in the nation's financial situation than had been expected.
Estimates from the organisation anticipate a 1.4 per cent growth in the UK's economy over the course of 2011, 0.2 per cent less than it said last December.
It also predicted peak unemployment to reach 2.7 million by the middle of 2012, or 8.7 per cent of the working population. Previously it had stated this figure would be 9.5 per cent.
"Just as pay freezes and pay cuts protected jobs in the recession, the ongoing pay squeeze is helping our anaemic economy support employment," explained CIPD chief economic adviser John Philpott.
Recently, the CIPD expressed concern about the rate of public sector job losses, noting that the figure was higher than the Office for Budget Responsibility had claimed it would be.
