Private sector job losses?

Some really interesting news in the Guardian today about the impact of spending cuts on the private sector.

I have long argued that the distinction between the public, private and even third sector has become increasingly blurred in the past two decades.

This is now so much so that the distinctions no longer really hold up; they are also ever more opaque. In my area it's certainly fairly safe to say that most people don't know where Capita ends and the council begins and we're not even talking about the private sector companies involved with highways, street lighting, running leisure centres, the voluntary sector running several academies and the presence of privately run NHS treatment centres.

This seems to be recognised, at least in part, by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) who assert that:

"The combined direct and inderect effect of public sector cuts will result in the loss of 650 000 private sector jobs."

I'm currently taking a fairly intense unit on survey methods at uni so I'm increasingly wary of any survey unless I'm familiar with its methodology, but this seems to be hinting in the right direction. It will definitely be interesting to see whether any more surveys reach similar conclusions.