The Labor Department has revealed the world’s largest economy lost 95,000 non-farm jobs last month – nearly double the 54,000 jobs lost in August. The latest figures means the unemployment rate held steady at 9.6%. The rate has now been above the 9% mark since May 2009. The number of unemployed is hovering around the [...]
It has been announced today that high street travel agents, Thomas Cook and the Co-operative Group, are to merge their chain of travel agents. However, the deal will bring “inevitable“ job losses due to overlap within the two companies. The transaction will create a 1,200-branch network and will save more than £35 million a year [...]
London Underground (LU) has today announced it will axe a further 400 office and management jobs. LU says it is reviewing all non-frontline services in a bid to cut costs. The announcement comes after unions were enraged over the loss of 800 ticket office jobs, which has led to industrial action on the underground. Two [...]
Northern Foods, which supplies ready meals to Marks & Spencer and Aldi, has revealed it will trim its workforce by 500 in a bid to cut costs. The job losses, which are set to be at management-level, are the result of reducing the business from five divisions to two. However, the announcement comes despite strong [...]
Healthcare giant Alliance Boots has announced plans to reduce its headcount in order to save more than £50 million. The company said it will shed 900 non-store jobs by 2013 – with the majority of the cuts in Nottingham – its main UK base. They cuts will be implemented in the company’s health and beauty [...]
Everything Everywhere, the company that runs Orange and T-Mobile in the UK has announced it will reduce its workforce by 7.5%. The merged mobile phone giant said the majority of the cuts would be made among back office, headquarters and management. The combined company, which has a 37% share of the UK mobile market, has [...]
It has been reported that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is axing approximately 500 administrative jobs at its investment banking division. The bank, which is 84% owned by the taxpayer, has axed around 26,000 jobs since the onset of the financial crisis. In a statement today, the bank said: “We continue to make efficiencies [...]
A report has revealed around 100,000 finance jobs have been lost since the onset of the credit crisis three years ago. On the third anniversary of the run on Northern Rock, there have been significant job losses within the sector. The Unite union said that little had changed to improve the regulatory regime in order [...]
A survey of 2,000 households, conducted by market researchers Markit and YouGov, has revealed confidence has been knocked and households are under pressure financially. The reason for the fall in confidence comes as households are fearful of losing their jobs as the coalition Government embarks on massive spending cuts and tax hikes. Approximately 600,000 public [...]
Credit Suisse, which is Switzerland’s second-largest bank, has today announced it will axe 75 jobs at its British operations. “We are currently reducing headcount by approximately 75 in the United Kingdom in the investment bank and certain support functions,” the bank said today. However, Credit Suisse, which has a substantial wealth management unit, said it [...]
Barclays Capital, the investment division of banking giant Barclays, is to slash around 400 back-office jobs in the US, Europe and Asia, a source familiar with the matter has said. The job losses come following Barclays’ expansion of its investment-banking unit, driven by the bank’s purchase of Lehman Brothers North America operations at the height [...]
The Labor Department has revealed the world’s largest economy lost 131,000 jobs last month – again, partly due to the loss of temporary Government jobs, which were recruited to help conduct the 2010 census. The latest figures means the unemployment rate held steady at 9.5% in July – for the second consecutive month and beating [...]
Lloyds Banking Group, which is 41% owned by the Government, has today reported it returned to profit in the first six months of 2010, revealing profits of £1.6 billion, against a loss of £4 billion a year earlier. The rise in profits was primarily due to reduced writedowns with bad loans falling from £13.4 billion [...]
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has today announced second quarter profits almost doubled after completing its restructuring programme ahead of schedule. Shell posted profits of $4.5 billion (£2.9 billion) – a rise of 94% on the $2.3 billion reported a year ago. The Anglo-Dutch firm, which is Britain’s second largest oil company, has undergone a [...]
Defence firm Qinetiq has today announced the loss of almost 400 jobs – which union leaders have said are the result of public spending cuts. According to the firm, around 130 jobs could be axed in Farnborough, Hampshire, and about 230 jobs may go in Malvern, Worcestershire. The remaining 30 positions will be spread across [...]
Concerns over mortgage finance are gnawing away at confidence in the UK housing market, according to Zoopla.co.uk. In a recent survey by the property website, 78% of respondents expected house prices to rise by the end of the year, down from 81% three moths ago. Thirty four per cent of those questioned named a shortage [...]
Lloyds Banking Group, which is 41%-owned by the Government, is to wield the axe again on insurance and back office-based staff, as it announces the closure of its network of Halifax-branded agencies. The majority of the 650 job losses will be at Chester and Nottingham – largely based in solicitors and estate agencies, as they [...]
Last week’s tough budget is expected to result in the loss of more than one million jobs by 2015, according to a leaked Treasury document. The Guardian has reported that while there will be an estimated 2.5 million jobs created in the next five years, 1.2 million will be lost in the same period. Last [...]
A report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has warned that UK unemployment could reach 2.95 million, from its current 2.51 million, as a result of the Government’s planned spending cuts. According to the influential think tank, 750,000 public sector workers could join the dole queue as the new coalition Government embarks [...]
Nationalised Northern Rock has announced it will axe a further 650 jobs by the end of the year as it prepares to return to the private sector. The reduction in headcount is part of the bank’s radical turnaround plan and comes just one week after it said it is to close its banking operation in [...]
Phone fraudsters stealing bank card pins
Fraudsters using a phone scam to trick bank card holders into revealing their pin numbers stole £750,000 in the first four months of this year. This is the same amount stolen through this scam in the whole of last year. The fraudster telephones a bank customer, often someone elderly or vulnerable, telling them that their [...]
FSA rules out ban on interest-only mortgages
Speculation that the Financial Services Authority would ban interest-only mortgages as part of its Mortgage Market Review has proved to be unfounded. However, lenders will be required to monitor the performance of the investment product taken out by the customer to repay the mortgage at the end of its term. Investments are performing poorly because [...]
Bank of England may end free in-credit banking
A director of the Bank of England has warned that official intervention could be considered to end the ‘dangerous myth of free in-credit banking’. Andrew Bailey has already spoken out against free banking in relation to the mis-selling of financial products. In a speech made available to media, he reiterated his concern, saying that it [...]
Bank of England votes against more economic stimulus
The Bank of England voted against a further round of quantitative easing, at its latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Just one member, David Miles, voted for further asset purchase to encourage growth in the UK economy, while the other eight members voted to keep the Bank’s quantitative easing programme steady at £325bn. The minutes [...]
Catalogue debt growing says helpline
Calls from people concerned about their debts with mail order catalogues accounted for more than 12 per cent of all calls received by National Debtline last year, compared with just 8 per cent in 2007. More people were concerned about catalogue debt than about payday loans, mortgage or rent, according to the Money Advice Trust [...]
Homeserve faces mis-selling investigation
HomeServe, which provides emergency insurance cover and domestic repairs to households in the UK, is to be investigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Issues over the possible mis-selling of household emergency policies were uncovered last October during an internal review at the Walsall-based company. Homeserve’s call centre staff were found to be selling ‘Complete [...]
OFT warns Wonga over debt collection methods
Payday loan company Wonga used aggressive and misleading methods to collect debts from customers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has found. Wonga sent letter and emails to certain customers suggesting they had committed fraud and threatening to report them to the police if they did not act in the way Wonga suggested. The company [...]
NS&I re-launches investment account
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has re-launched its Investment Account at a higher interest rate than it previously offered. The account now offers 0.75 per cent before tax, compared with between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent previously, depending on the account balance. Deposits and withdrawals on the account can no longer be made at Post [...]
Rightmove reports property downsizing trend
Two in five property owners planning to sell in the next year are planning to ‘trade down’, compared with one in four who plan to ‘trade up’. A survey by property website Rightmove found that moving to a smaller home is the main reason for moving in nine out of the ten regions in the [...]
More people failing to save for retirement
The proportion of people with no pension savings has grown from 20 per cent to 22 per cent over the past year, according to Scottish Widows’ latest survey. The pension provider surveyed 5,200 adults in the UK, aged 30 or over, and earning at least £10,000 a year, for its annual review of pensions. Ian [...]
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