ALMOST 60,000 public sector jobs have been lost in the North-East since the 2010 general election - twice the number feared by economists.

Research by Durham Business School and Durham University for the TUC showed that there were now 59,000 fewer public sector jobs in the region than at the time of the last election.

The figure is almost twice that originally feared by regional economists when they predicted 30,000 public sector job losses in the North-East immediately after the Chancellor outlined the scale of the Government's planned cuts after the election.

New analysis of Office for National Statistics data showed the North-East's public sector has contracted by an average of 1,157 public sector jobs per month since June 2010.

Northern TUC policy and campaigns officer Neil Foster said: “It has harmed our region’s recovery and contributed a deterioration of the quality of jobs.

"The cuts have been even deeper here than many expected because the Coalition has made bigger reductions to funding for councils in poorer areas in the north than to more affluent parts of southern England.

"The North-East continues to have the highest unemployment in the UK and double the rate of the South East of England.

“Only a small proportion of private sector jobs created have been full-time, secure or well paid, which is one of the reason why income tax receipts have fallen this last year. Women make up two thirds of public sector workers and so it is not a surprise that the number of women out of work in the North East has risen by a quarter in the last two years."

However James Ramsbotham, chief executive of the North East Chamber of Commerce, said the fact that more people were now employed in the region was testament to the resilience of the private sector.

Despite unemployment being the highest in the UK at 9.1 per cent, the amount of people in jobs was also higher than ever before in the region.

"It is a huge testament to the private sector that we have not only soaked up all those job losses but have more people in work and record exports," he said.

"What we are aware of, however, is that a lot of those individuals who have lost their jobs in the public sector are not necessarily those who have got jobs in the private sector."