Economic confidence among British voters has slumped, a poll out yesterday showed, with a majority believing that the economy will show no signs of improvement any time soon.
The survey by pollsters ComRes for the Independent on Sunday and Sunday Mirror newspapers found that 23 percent thought the economy would pick up soon, down from 67 percent in June 2009.
Fifty-five percent thought it would not, up from 27 percent, while 22 percent did not express any opinion.
Asked whether the loss of hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs was a price worth paying to reduce Britain’s budget deficit, 29 percent of respondents agreed, while 51 percent disagreed.
Forty-eight percent said that in most cases they had sympathy for people going on strike against public spending cuts.
The same percentage disagreed that it was better to let government borrowing go on rising than to allow more youth unemployment, with 22 percent agreeing.
Britain’s economic outlook darkened on Wednesday after data showing 1 million youngsters out of work for the first time and as the Bank of England slashed its growth forecasts, fearing more eurozone woes.
The total number of jobless jumped by 129,000 to a 17-year high 2.62 million, a 15-year peak of 8.3 percent, while the economy is now expected to grow by no more than 1 percent this year and next year.
Sixty-one percent planned to spend less money on Christmas this year.
ComRes surveyed 2,012 British adults online between Wednesday and Friday.
Meanwhile, the pressure on London bankers to get to grips with the global financial crisis has led to stress, depression and insomnia among City workers, affecting even the most experienced bosses.
The phenomenon was brought to light when Lloyds Banking Group chief executive Antonio Horta-Osario announced that he was stepping down from his post until the end of the year for “medical reasons.”
Reports claimed the Portuguese-born executive, who earns a basic annual salary of more than £1 million (US$1.6 million), was suffering from fatigue after just six months at the helm of the bailed-out bank.
The shock announcement of Horta-Osario highlighted a worrying trend among bankers, said Michael Sinclair, clinical director of City Psychology Group, which treats patients from offices in the City and Canary Wharf, London’s second business center.
“There’s definitely an increase in [patients] presenting to us with stress-related conditions, a whole host of anxiety disorder and depression,” Sinclair said.
Sinclair blames the current economic turmoil for the growth in cases of stress-related illness among his patients, which can cause a range of physical symptoms including headaches, back pain, heart conditions and insomnia.
“Since the recession, things have changed,” said Cary Cooper, a professor of psychology and health at Lancaster University in northwest England.
As the eurozone crisis deepens, Cooper said job insecurity was a further source of worry for workers, many of whom remember the traumatic scenes of September 2008, when London employees at failed US bank Lehman Brothers lost their jobs overnight.
A recent study by research institute the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has added to financial workers’ job fears.
CEBR estimates that more jobs in the financial sector will be slashed this year, bringing the number of employees in the industry back down to 1998 levels.
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