Around 3.7 million people have been made redundant since the recession in 2008 - one in seven of all employees - according to a new study. Almost two-thirds of those losing their jobs were men, with most redundancies reported in 2009. The last two years have been the worst for women losing their jobs, reflecting public sector spending cuts, said The Jobs Economist consultancy. The research, published ahead of the latest unemployment figures, showed that redundancy rates since 2008 have generally been lower than in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The redundancy rate has fallen back in recent years and shows no sign of rising substantially above pre-recession levels, said the report. Dr John Philpott, director of The Jobs Economist, said: "The observation that what might be called the UK's normal redundancy rate fell well before the recession suggests that the lower-than- expected level of redundancies in recent years, which is often partly attributed to more co-operative employment relations and pay restraint triggered by the financial crisis, labour hoarding by employers, or zombie companies kept alive by very low interest rates, is in fact symptomatic of a longer-term structural change in the economic and business climate which has resulted in a lower propensity to make staff redundant." Last month's unemployment figures showed a 37,000 fall in the quarter to November to 2.49 million. | 
