Private sector employers are unlikely to impose a second year of wage freezes even though unemployment is continuing to rise towards 3m and settlements in the public sector are tightening, according to the head of a leading research group.

“Those people who have frozen [pay] in the first six months of 2009 are more likely to give a rise in the first six months of 2010, except those firms that are still not recovering. That might be a minority,” said Alastair Hatchett, head of pay and human resources services at Incomes Data Services.