Of 198 respondents to the survey in the past week, 45% said they feared they would be making redundancies this Christmas.

The poll followed controversial comments from Cheshire solicitor Mark Bestley, who called for employers to swing the jobs axe on Christmas Eve.

Bestley, partner at law firm SAS Daniels Solicitors, said earlier this month: "I would actually recommend that people who may be a nuisance or disruptive to a business are told they've lost their job as close to Christmas as possible."

With hundreds of thousands of jobs expected to go in the next 12 months, Bestley said employers should make redundancies directly before the Christmas break so redundant staff were removed immediately, and those who remained faced a fresh start in January.