Women 'hit hardest by job cuts

A GMB survey has today hit the newsstands pointing out that women have born the brunt of job losses in local authorities.

Of the 129,000 jobs axed in councils in England and Wales between the first quarter of 2010 and the second quarter of this year, two-thirds were women.

In the West Midlands 70% of all the job losses were women. In one of our local authorities, North Warwickshire, female job losses made up the entire 100% of job losses.

This is yet more evidence of how the government's spending cuts and austerity have a disproportiante impact. At the weekend we saw the brilliant rallies in Nottingham and Birmingham highlighting the massive impact of cuts on disabled people. Today, these figures highlight the disproportionate impact on women.

These figures should serve as a wake up call and the Government really must take another look at their policies. Job losses are not only hurting our economy but putting at risk years of advances in tackling inequality.