Image caption The survey suggests that job insecurity remains rife

Twenty per cent of UK workers fear for their jobs, a survey has suggested.

In the public sector, that figure rises to nearly one in three workers, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said.

The organisation is calling on managers to demonstrate high-quality leadership in order to raise morale and engagement in the workplace.

More than half of the 2,000 workers surveyed also claimed that their employer had either frozen or cut pay.

Falling living standards

The CIPD said the quarterly survey illustrated the extent to which employees are concerned about their standard of living "as inflation continues to erode the real value of wages".

Almost a third of those surveyed said their standard of living had got worse over the last six months. This compared with just 10% who said it had improved.

"If organisations don't invest in developing high-performing managers, they may find better managed competitors racing past on the road to recovery," said the CIPD's Ben Willmott.

"Employers need to find cost-effective ways of equipping their line managers with the people management skills to support employee engagement and wellbeing."