Of UK executives working in the public and private sectors questioned by recruitment consultant Robert Half, 45% of those who reported being affected by the downturn said that their organisation had made redundancies in their accounting and finance departments during the past year. That compares with 38% of US respondents, 28% of Japanese executives and 26% of Swiss respondents, according to the survey of 4,830 finance, HR and senior executives in 21 countries.

Only four countries reported more redundancies in their finance departments than the UK ­ Canada (50%), Australia (49%), Ireland (48%) and Hong Kong (46%).

UK respondents said current economic conditions had resulted in increased workloads (43%), greater stress (44%) and lower morale (35%) in the accounting and finance department.

However, on a more upbeat note, more than half of UK executives questioned said they expected the economy to rebound by early next year or before.

Phil Sheridan, managing director of Robert Half, said: ‘While we are currently in an “employers’ market”, with a sharp increase in the number of individuals in the job market, when the upturn begins, those companies who manage to both retain and further develop their talent during the recession will be best placed to take advantage of new opportunities as soon as they emerge.’

According to Robert Half, it takes an average of just over seven weeks to fill a non-managerial position within accounting and finance departments in the UK.