Local authorities across England and Wales have lost almost 600,000 members of staff since 2012, a public sector union has found.
In 2012, English and Welsh councils employed 1,894,700 workers, according to an analysis of data from the Office of National Statistics by the union GMB.
The number of workers across the two nations is now 1,295,300 – a drop of 599,400 and more than 30% of all jobs.
GMB’s analysis found that Birmingham was the worst hit, losing almost 27,000 workers or 60% of its workforce.
Birmingham was followed by Derbyshire (18,405 job loses, 49.9% headcount decrease), Staffordshire (16,086, 63.1%), Hertfordshire (12391, 34.4%) and Essex (11985, 39.0%).
The next five councils identified by GMB were Cumbria (11939, 64.0%), Surrey (11,629, 39.6%), Kent (10,275, 33.9%), Bradford (9,616, 45.7%), and Norfolk (8,991, 38.1%).
