Employers have cut spending on business travel and client entertaining as they look for other ways of reducing costs to stave off damaging redundancies, a study reveals on Monday.

Some 38 per cent of organisations reported that they had reduced business travel expenditure, with cuts likely to be deeper in the private sector than the public sector, according to a survey of almost 900 employers conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and consultants KPMG.

Some 60 per cent of employers cutting travel expenditure said they had reduced international trips, while 69 per cent said they had cut the expenses staff are allowed to claim. Almost two-thirds reduced the use of first-class travel, while 55 per cent said they had cut client entertaining.