HR professionals must resist making budgets cuts, but should instead do more to help staff in troubled economic times.

Speaking at the CIPD conference John Philpott, chief economist at the CIPD, said: "Redundancy should be the last thing on employers' minds. They should be thinking about all the alternatives such as flexible working, job sharing or even pay reduction before resorting to redundancy."

His warning came on the day government revealed unemployment had risen by 81,000 between May-July, reaching 1.72 million - or 5.5% (up from 5.3%).

He added: "It is up to everyone at this conference to do their damndest by their people."

Talking about HR and its role in a global economy, Philpott cautioned that an "avalanche of redundancies" would alienate remaining staff, and only encourage them to leave their jobs faster.

He predicted: "2009 will be dire for the employment and labour market. But I think this will pick up in 2010. The downturn will be short but sharp."