Vocational training scheme to help jobless

At the same time as the coalition government revealed that Jobseekers who fail to take up compulsory training will lose their benefits, the business community has warned against sidelining vocational education in favour of more academic subjects.  As part of the government’s new ‘claimant contract’, Employment Minister Chris Grayling indicated that people who were unable […]

28,000 Police jobs to go

Police forces across England and Wales will lose a total of 28,000 jobs, including 12,000 officers, over the next four years due to budget cuts, a confidential memo to the coalition government has revealed.  The Association of Chief Police Officers predicts that the number of officers will drop by 8%, while one in six civilian […]

Redundancies ahead as cuts bite

The first three months of 2011 will be “a quarter of reckoning” for the jobs market, with the number of redundancies across the economy set to rise “sharply” as coalition government cuts start to bite.  According to this quarter’s Labour Market Outlook from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and management consultancy KPMG, the […]

Jobs for skilled workers should be cut by 1/3

The number of occupations available to skilled workers coming to the UK from outside the EU should be cut by more than a third, a government-appointed panel has recommended.  The Migration Advisory Committee proposed that the list of eligible jobs should be reduced to 121 from 192, which would result in the exclusion of hairdressers, […]

Windpower breathes hope into ‘jobless recovery’

Despite warnings that the UK risks a US-style ‘jobless recovery’, one bright spot on the horizon is the wind energy sector, which has seen a 91% leap in employment over the last three years.  A report commissioned by industry association RenewableUK and EU Skills, the Sector Skills Council for the power sector, revealed that the […]

Work visa crack down proposed

Immigration minister Damian Green is proposing to crack down on work visas for non-EU students after they leave education in order to create a “fair playing field” for UK graduates trying to enter the jobs market.  In a speech to the think tank Reform, Green claimed that change was necessary to stop people from using […]

Employment law leniency won’t help employment stability, says CIPD

Coalition government plans to make it easier for employers to sack staff in their first two years of employment without facing unfair dismissal claims will do little to create hoped-for jobs but may destabilise the labour market, an HR body has warned.  Under Prime Minister David Cameron’s new so-called ‘employers’ charter’, workers will also have […]

Cameron to host job-boosting summit

Although 19 mainly retail businesses will pledge to create as many as 40,000 new jobs over the year ahead at a Downing Street jobs summit today, the financial services sector is expected to axe 15,000 posts this quarter.  Ahead of the publication of a joint report with management consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers, head of economic analysis at […]

UK seeks to create jobs and cash in on tourism

British Airways and P&O are among the companies backing a £100 million government fund to promote tourism with the aim of creating 50,000 jobs and bringing in an extra one million overseas visitors to the UK.  Cash and payment in kind has also been pledged by the Radisson Edwardian hotel chain, Lastminute.com and ferry operator […]

Uncertainty despite private sector coming up with jobs

Although private sector job creation will offset public sector job cuts in the last quarter of this year, widespread uncertainty as to the future means that employers remain cautious about prospects for the year ahead.  According to the Labour Market Outlook survey undertaken by researchers Ipsos-Mori, some two out of five public sector bodies currently […]

Unemployed: take work or lose benefits

Under a new ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule due to be announced later today, unemployed people who refuse to take up offers of work will lose their unemployment benefits for three years.  The sliding-scale penalty will be triggered automatically on the third occasion that claimants on Jobseekers Allowance turn down a job offer, fail […]

CIPD: 1.6 million jobs will go in UK

The private sector will lose more jobs than the public sector following the coalition government’s spending cuts and VAT rise and will struggle to create a targeted 300,000 posts per year by 2015-16.  The warning from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) came as researchers revealed that graduate unemployment had hit the highest […]

Recruiters beware: 2/3 of jobseekers lie about previous salary

Just over two thirds of potential job candidates inflate the salary that they were paid in their last position in a bid to get more money, making it the most common interview fib. Next on the list come lies about candidates’ qualifications or grades in order to impress potential employers (61%), followed by bending the […]

Job creation plan: time to get real

The coalition government must act quickly to flesh out its National Infrastructure Plan to boost job creation and stimulate economic growth as it currently lacks the necessary specifics to generate business confidence, employers have warned.  At business lobby group the CBI’s annual conference yesterday Prime Minister David Cameron outlined his “strategy for growth” for the […]

Not enough jobs to offset public sector cuts

Industry watchers have expressed concern over the fragile state of the labour market following the publication of government statistics yesterday, amid fears that private sector job creation will be unable to offset heavy public sector job cuts.  The figures released by the Office of National Statistics showed a mixed picture for the three months to […]

Job deficit to last five years

Although unemployment fell slightly last quarter due to a record increase in the number of part-time workers, a leading HR body has warned that the UK faces five long years of a serious jobs deficit.  According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of people in employment fell by 34,000 to 2.47 million in […]

NHS not so ‘protected’ after all

Despite reassurances from the coalition government that front-line services would be protected, many NHS Trusts are already being forced to make redundancies, introduce recruitment freezes and cut back on services, according to the BMA.  A survey of 92 local negotiating committee chairs undertaken by the doctors’ association revealed that 24% already planned to make redundancies […]

Ask the expert: Advertising short term vacancies and contracts

Martin Brewer and Esther Smith advise on whether you need to advertise short term vacancies and contracts. The question: Advertising short term vacancies and contracts Could someone please clarify the law regarding the advertisement of short-term vacancies such as maternity leave? I am the Deputy Manager and my Manager is due to go on maternity […]

Dole claimants 5: Job vacancies 1

While the jobless rate among OECD nations may have remained static in April, TUC figures indicate that dole claimants in the UK now outnumber job vacancies by five to one, with London, the North East and Scotland worst hit.  Statistics released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes mostly developed nations, revealed […]

CIPD: unemployment to hit three million by the second half of 2012

Government plans to focus on spending cuts rather than tax increases will stall any recovery in the jobs market later this year and cause unemployment to hit three million by the second half of 2012.  This is the stark warning that John Philpott, chief economic advisor for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development will […]