Almost 1,500 jobs are at risk because of the replacement of NHS Direct, the nursing union has said. The Royal College of Nursing said NHS Direct would close 24 of its 30 call centres and it had emerged in a consultation that up to 1,482 “wholetime equivalent” staff could lose their jobs. Instead the public … Continue reading
George Osborne has been given a black eye on the eve of his autumn statement by employers almost universally rejecting his plan to offer workers company shares in return for abandoning many of their employment rights. The chancellor plans to announce on Wednesday that he will press ahead with the proposal, with some small adjustments. … Continue reading
Friends Life is making around 150 staff redundant as part of a new round of cost cutting. The provider says it has not yet decided which departments will suffer cuts, adding it will inform staff in due course. As well as the job losses, Friends Life has around 50 job vacancies it will no longer … Continue reading
British Airways is looking to shed 400 senior cabin crew jobs. But the airline stressed that there would be no compulsory redundancies. A BA spokesman said the airline had entered into a 90-day consultation with the Unite union about the possibility of making voluntary redundancy available to 400 cabin crew staff. Those being offered the … Continue reading
Key findings The wealthiest tenth of households owned more than 40% of overall wealth and were over 850 times wealthier than the least wealthy tenth of households A household required total wealth greater than £967,000 to belong to the wealthiest 10% of the distribution The south-east of England had the highest percentage of ‘wealthy’ households … Continue reading
Manchester City Council has confirmed up to 900 jobs could be cut as the authority tries to make savings of about £80m over the next two years. The city has seen its budget cut by almost £170m since its government funding was reduced last year. Two-thousand posts have already been lost through budget cuts. The … Continue reading
The UK labour market has done far better than in past recessions in terms of preserving jobs. Does that mean it has been a triumph for the so-called “Anglo-social” model, partway between the liberal US system and more regulated continental European markets? Not quite. Taking the good and bad sides of Britain’s experience, it has … Continue reading
Insurance group Direct Line is to cut a further 236 jobs as part of efforts to save £100million in costs. It said the roles would be cut across divisions including its commercial underwriting operation and risk and compliance function. The latest jobs cull comes on top of redundancies already announced by the group this year, … Continue reading
In the biggest drop in four years, net migration, the difference between the numbers arriving and leaving, fell to 183,000 in the year to March, down from 242,000 the previous year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The number of foreign students coming to the UK was down 8%, the number of foreign workers … Continue reading
In the darkest days of the financial crisis economists were predicting the unemployment toll would reach 3m. Thankfully, those fears never materialised, with joblessness peaking at around 2.7m. However, the side effect of containing the jobs figures well below 3m has resulted in swathes of people working part-time or reduced hours because they cannot find … Continue reading
A further 350 jobs are to go at Derby City Council, taking the total number of cuts to 1,000 in three years. The cuts have been announced as council bosses said the authority needed to reduce its budget by £63m by 2015. City council leader Paul Bayliss said it was also looking at other ways … Continue reading
Older workers have propelled the increase in self-employment that has helped to hold down the jobless rate since the economic crisis began, a Financial Times analysis shows. The proportion of workers who are self-employed has climbed to a record 14 per cent over the past four years – helping to keep a lid on unemployment … Continue reading
Private companies running a flagship government employment scheme have put only 3.5 percent of clients into sustainable jobs, statistics published on Tuesday showed. The British coalition government’s Work Programme, launched in June 2011 to help the long-term unemployed find work, divides the country into regions, with each comprising a range of private, public and voluntary … Continue reading
Almost 5,200 university leavers sought employment in mainland Europe, the Far East and North America last year – up by 1,000 since the start of the economic crisis. Official figures show that graduates from the very best universities are significantly more likely to be tempted overseas, prompting fears that Britain’s most talented young people were … Continue reading
Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis has arranged a crisis meeting of scientists, NHS trustees and Government officials starting today in London in a bid to streamline Britain’s “haphazard” approach to medical research and development (R&D). Science Minister David Willetts is due to attend the meeting, thought to be the first to unite representatives of Big Pharma … Continue reading