Hundreds of council and school jobs in the West Midlands have been left vacant during the recession, it emerged today.

Wolverhampton City Council saw a three per cent drop in staff since the start of the financial year in April. Between April and November last year, it took on 615 staff but lost 980 – an overall cut of 365. In schools there were 386 new starters and 487 leavers – a drop of 101.

Councillor Joan Stevenson, in charge of human resources, said today: “I have just signed off another £360,000 of savings.”

In Sandwell, an extra 208 workers were taken on.

Wolverhampton City Council cut £9.7m off its budget since April.

In Walsall there were 206 new starters at the council and 281 leavers. In schools 338 people started but there were 425 people who stopped working in them.

In Dudley there were 1,393 new starters including 769 in schools and 253 in independent schools. This meant there were 371 who started at the council.

The total number of leavers was 1,712 including 1,045 in state schools and 292 in independent schools. The figure for leavers without schools was 375.

In Sandwell the council took on 520 staffand lost 312. Schools in the borough lost 729 staff and took on 667 replacements. In Birmingham 551 people left the authority, which employs more than 50,000.

South Staffordshire Council recently started insisting that all new jobs have a business case to prove that they were essential.

But it still took on eight casual staff, mainly as lifeguards, 10 fixed term contracts and 15 permanent staff. Five fixed term staff left along with 15 permanent employees. Lichfield District Council had 24 starters and 45 leavers.