Two legs, four legs

Tweet Around a quarter of the workforce in Wales is directly employed in the public sector. Nobody doubts that cuts in public expenditure will reduce the number employed in the sector, although by how many is still an open question. It would be a mistake to assume that the private sector will somehow 'pick up the slack'. It would also be a mistake to assume that the private sector will be immune to public sector cuts. It's not always straightforward to differentiate between the two sectors.

As an example, I work freelance through a limited company which I use to invoice customers, pay my own suppliers, and pay myself a regular salary out of irregular income. Very private sector. But a lot of my work comes from the public sector.

Sometimes, I get work passed on from other companies which have sold more services than they are able to supply in-house. Those companies are also very much in the private sector – but an awful lot of the end customers are in the public sector.

It's one small illustration, but there are many thousands of employees in Wales who appear to be working in the private sector but who are actually heavily dependent on public expenditure for their livelihood.

My point is two-fold. Firstly, if anyone working for a private company is sitting there thinking that public sector cutbacks will only affect other people's jobs, they may well be deluding themselves. And secondly, we need a better understanding of the complex relationship that exists between sectors in our economy, rather then the Public Bad, Private Good mantra which many seem happy to chant.