More than 2 million jobs in the public sector will be need to be filled by 2016, according to a new report.

Despite the prospect of redundancies because of government cuts, the Centre for Economics and Business Research estimates that 2.1 million vacancies will need to be filled by the end of the 2015/16 financial year.

The report also estimates that a mere quarter of these jobs will be open to the general public — and suggests that changes in recruitment practices could save £2.5 billion.

Recommendations for government organisations made in Future of Public Sector Recruiting include:

• Making internal vacancy advertisement "the exception rather than the norm."
• Using online recruitment and training HR staff to use it.
• The report was produced in association with jobs website totaljobs.com.

The Centre’s managing economist, Richard Greenwood, said: "Even in the face of shrinking headcount, the public sector will still have to recruit in droves in the coming years owing to natural churn.

"At a time of intense scrutiny of all facets of public sector spending, it is more critical than ever that all cost efficiencies are realised - the £2.5bn opportunity offered by increased use of the online channel for recruitment represents an ideal chance for public sector bodies to boost their productivity and do more for less."