Defence giant BAE Systems has today announced it will eliminate 642 UK positions as a result of a slump in its workload on some projects. The latest reduction in headcount will affect staff across eight of its 11 UK sites and takes the job cuts total to almost 2,300 this year. The sites affected are [...]
Low-cost airline bmi has announced plans to axe around 600 jobs as part of a restructuring plan. The carrier, like many others around the world, has been hit by a slump in demand, higher fuel prices and increased competition. The economic downturn has meant many airlines have been forced out of business as fewer people [...]
Wolseley, which is the world’s largest supplier of plumbing and heating equipment, today reported a 45% fall in underlying profits in the three months to the end of October. The company has been badly hit by the housing market downturn and warned that its struggles continue after revenue slumped 13% to £3.4 billion in the [...]
Struggling airline British Airways (BA) has today posted a first-half pre-tax loss of £292 million for the six months to 30 September. The airline admitted during the summer it was fighting to survive and has since been looking at ways to cut costs. It is struggling to stay afloat during the global economic downturn which [...]
Official figures have revealed that Spain’s unemployment rate has reached 19.3% (one of the highest of any European region) as the economy has been hit by a severe slump within the construction industry, which has led to a significant amount of job losses. Spain’s jobless rate is more than double the 9.2% rate for the [...]
The Chartered Institute of Planning & Supply(CIPS)/Markit purchasing managers index fell to 46.2 in October, from 46.7 in September, marking the 20th consecutive month of falls due to a slump in demand for commercial and civil engineering work. Meanwhile, job cuts in the sector also increased at the fastest rate in four months, while input [...]
One of the world’s largest telecommunications equipment suppliers, Nokia Siemens Networks, is to lay off almost 6,000 workers globally in a bid to cut annual costs by €1 billion. The company, which is a joint venture between Finland’s Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG of Germany, is struggling amid tough competition and the global recession which [...]
Italian luxury fashion house Versace is to eliminate 350 jobs (around 25% of its workforce), due to a slump in demand for luxury and designer goods. The jobs will be cut worldwide and completed by the middle of 2010 and are part of a strategic review of its stores. The group, which employs 1,360 staff [...]
The Land Registry has today reported a rise in house prices in England and Wales in September. According to the Registry, house prices rose by 0.9% in September compared with August putting the average cost of a home at £158,377. It must be noted that the Land Registry compiles its data from completed transactions and [...]
Asia’s largest carrier, Japan Airlines (JAL), is set to be bailed out by the Government after a restructuring plan was rejected by its creditor banks. The airline, like many others throughout the world, is struggling to stay afloat during the global economic downturn which has led to a slump in demand. Many airlines have been [...]
Irish airline Aer Lingus, which like many others is struggling amid the global recession, has today announced plans to reduce headcount by 676 in a bid to save €97 million (£90 million) over the next two years. Furthermore, the airline is also calling on staff earning more than €35,000 (£32,400) a year to take a [...]
The finance ministry has reported that Japanese exports were down for the 11th consecutive month in August due to a slump in demand from the global economy. The world’s no. 2 economy saw exports tumble 36% in August compared with the same month last year to 4.5 trillion yen (£29.9 billion). Meanwhile, imports fell 41% [...]
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research is predicting that the UK housing market will only return to growth in 2012. The forecast, from Britain’s oldest independent economic research body, assumes that recent reports of “green shoots” are purely down to a lack of properties for sale, and will be short-lived. With mortgage approvals [...]
Japan’s core private sector machine orders, a leading indicator of capital spending, fell in May to a record low, the Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo. The world’s second largest economy, which is heavily dependent on exports, has been hit by a slump in demand for its products overseas, particularly cars and electrical goods. Exports [...]
Britain’s largest Steelmaker Corus is believed to be axing 2,000 jobs. However, the company is to make a formal statement later today. Reports say that around 500 jobs will go at its Scunthorpe plant, while a further 400 are expected to be lost at its Teesside plant and 800 jobs are at risk at Rotherham. [...]
Wolseley, which is one of the UK’s largest suppliers to builders, has reported a massive drop in profits today sending its shares plummeting by 15%. The company, which owns the Plumb Center and Build Center chains, said that in the nine months to 30 April, pre-tax profits fell by 80% compared with the same period [...]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has dealt a blow today by announcing that the global economy is set to decline by 1.3% in 2009. Back in January, the IMF predicted that world output would increase by 0.5% in 2009. In the UK, the IMF is forecasting a “quite severe recession” and that the economy will [...]
The global economic downturn is claiming further victims as Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has announced today that 3,900 contract workers will lose their jobs by March 2010. Executive vice president, Fumio Muraoka, said the contracts of the workers will not be renewed. The news comes as the company has already laid off 4,500 temporary workers. [...]
Figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) have revealed a significant fall in UK car production. According to the SMMT, 61,404 news cars were produced last month, almost 60% down compared with than January 2008, primarily due to the slump in demand for new vehicles which has resulted in many plant [...]
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) have revealed that the number of new cars registered in the UK in January fell 30.9% year-on-year. The continued fall highlights the fact that the economic downturn continues to have a major impact on new car sales. According to the organisation, a total of 112,087 new cars [...]
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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