The coming year could see as many as 600,000 job losses with over a quarter of workers expecting no pay rise.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) annual survey predicts the UK economy will shed at least 600,000 jobs in 2009.

Overall the 18-month period from the start of the recession in mid-2008 until the end of 2009 will witness the loss of around three quarters of a million jobs, it is claimed.

“This time last year, in the face of some scepticism, the CIPD warned that 2008 would be the UK’s worst year for jobs in a decade. It was,” said John Philpott, chief economist at the CIPD.

“But in retrospect it will be seen as merely the slow motion prelude to what will be the worst year for jobs in almost two decades.”

He added that – assuming the economy bottoms out in the second half of 2009 – job losses are likely to continue into 2010, “in all probability taking the final toll of lost jobs to around one million”.

CIPD is now expecting a jump in redundancy numbers in the coming months as employers take stock after the Christmas rush.

“The period between New Year and Easter is likely to be the worst for redundancies since 1991,” Mr Philpott said.

“The CIPD’s baseline forecast is that by the end of 2009 the number of people unemployed and actively seeking work will have increased to 2.8 million, one million above the autumn 2008 figure.”

The research also looked at pay expectations for 2009.

Some 28 per cent of those polled said they expected not to receive a pay rise in 2009, and 26 per cent expected a pay rise smaller than in 2008.