Supermarkets lead the way in new job opportunities
January 28, 2009
Supermarket giant Asda has announced that 7,000 jobs are to be created as part of plans to extend a number of existing outlets and the opening of several new stores. The supermarket sector is one which appears to have fought off the recession better than other industries such as retail and car manufacturing, and recently other supermarket chains have announced growth and new jobs to be created, including Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons.
Many of the new jobs at Asda will be aimed at people who have been unemployed for a long time, presumably as part of local employment partnerships in conjunction with the Job Centre. The chain is also intending work with Remploy, which is a government agency that provides:
“employment services and employment to people experiencing complex barriers to work” (www.remploy.co.uk)
Another company that has announced new jobs to be created is BSkyB, with 1,000 new vacancies to be made available due to the continuing growth in demand for services.
This is excellent news after weeks and weeks of announcements of redundancies in many industries including retailers such as M&S and car manufacturers such as Nissan. Recently Business Secretary Peter Mandelson announced a £2.5billion ‘lifeline’ package for the struggling car industry, a lot of which is to guarantee loans taken for lower carbon initiatives, and some of which is to provide funding for training and support for workers in the industry.
The jobs crisis is not just in the UK - the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said that the global economic crisis could lead to the loss of 51million jobs worldwide this year, and the worst affected places will not be developed countries such as the UK but those who are still developing, such as countries in North Africa and the Middle East.
The security monster strikes again
January 27, 2009
Another day, another major loss of data for thousands, if not millions of people. One of the UK’s biggest recruitment and job search websites, Monster, has had a major breach of security after hackers have carried out what has been described as
“the biggest data theft in the UK since the details of 25 million child benefit claimants went missing last year” (BBC news).
4.5 million people in the UK use the site to directly find jobs or speculatively browse the market. Many users post their CV to the site just to keep their hand in the job market and are offered interviews and positions from recruiters and companies that search the CV database for candidates matching their needs.
The main danger from this breach is from potential ‘phishing attacks’ – this is where a user is sent an email ‘phishing’ for information, e.g. to confirm their username and password (the type of thing we are often warned about in relation to our bank accounts). Another possibility is emails that fool readers into installing malware (software that is designed to damage a computer) by clicking on links in emails.
The hackers have stolen phone number and emails, as well as usernames and passwords. Many people use the same passwords for more than one of their online accounts, so if you have a monster account it is a good idea to check what other sites you have used the same password for and change them.
Government announces plans to help small businesses survive recession
January 14, 2009
Today the Government has announced plans to assist small businesses to survive in the challenging economic climate through the provision of loan guarantees. This means that banks will be insured against companies that default on repayments. The intention of the plan is to help companies with existing loans and other facilities such as overdrafts, as well as encouraging more loans to be made for:
“innovative, viable and growing [companies] that are finding it difficult to access working capital” (Lord Mandelson)
The plans are for small to medium businesses, many of whom rely on credit, overdrafts and loans from the bank to manage their cash flow and often to pay things like staff salaries when sales have dropped. It is hoped that the scheme will help reduce the numbers of companies going under by supporting them with their cash flow during the economic downturn, and therefore will hopefully save many jobs. The three key parts of the scheme are:
- The working capital scheme: will secure up to £20bilion of loans made by banks to companies with a turnover of up to £500million.
- The Enterprise Guarantee Scheme: will secure up to £1.3billion of loans made by banks to companies with a turnover of up to £25million.
- The Capital for Enterprise Fund: will provide £75billion to invest in small businesses with high debt that desperately need a cash injection.
These measures will hopefully kick start more lending and get the economy moving, and hopefully avoid more and more job losses. Many jobs in the UK are now at risk, and unemployment is rising rapidly. It is hard to find anyone who doesn’t know someone who has been affected by the recession, or is directly affected themselves through the loss of their employment.
Recent announcements of job losses in larger organisations include JCB which has announced 700 job cuts, Land of Leather which has gone into administration and is looking for a buyer, Travis Perkins who will be making 1,400 redundancies and Waterstones which is restructuring, and as a result will cut 200 jobs. This shows that companies of all sizes and in many sectors are affected, and not just the small to medium firms.
New year, new deal?
January 6, 2009
The Government has announced new plans to create 100,000 jobs through a number of public works programmes including schools, hospitals, transport and environmental work. This is a move that is also being developed in America, where President-elect Obama has indicated his desire to emulate the type of projects introduced by Franklin D Roosevelt in the early 1930’s to help the United States pull itself out of the Great Depression. Gordon Brown has said:
“The imagination and humanity at the heart of some of the great New Deal innovations changed American politics for ever and shaped the future of progressive politics across the world”.
This news comes as yet more jobs are lost on the high street, with Woolworths finally closing its doors and a succession of other retailers following the same path over the last few weeks including Adams and USC. Marks and Spencer is also expected to announce 1,000 job cuts after a poor period of trading over Christmas.
It is hoped that the Government proposals will help to reduce the impact of the recession on the numbers of unemployed people, although how big a dent this will make is unclear, given that the British Chambers of Commerce has predicted one in ten Britons will be unemployed by 2010. However the New Deal style interventions appear to indicate more than a practical exercise to combat the effects of the recession; this is a move away from a style of Government implemented in the 1980s under Thatcher; which advocated less Government intervention in business and the economy, and more self-regulation and ‘look after yourself’ ideas. It has been argued that this way of thinking is the reason the credit crunch eventually happened, so a new way of leading the UK and US, with more state intervention, may be a popular move with the general public.
Unemployment statistics show bleak state of the economy
December 17, 2008
The Office for National Statistics has released new figures which show that in the three months to October this year, unemployment rose by 137,000 people. The total figure of 1.86million is the highest level of unemployment for 11 years. As the recession has hit many industries, the number of people claiming jobseekers allowance has steadily increased month on month for the last ten months. The rapidly increasing numbers of people out of work is said to be worrying financial experts, because the unemployment figure is normally a ‘lagging indicator’ in a recession as it takes a while for the effects of a downturn to make an impact on employment. However the fact that the effect seems to have been immediate causes concern for many people, as described by en economist at Deutsche Bank who said “to see so many job losses this early in the cycle is extremely worrying”.
I have noticed changes within my work as a result of the increasing numbers of people losing their employment. In my organisation we are fortunate enough to still be recruiting where others are having to make many redundancies, and in recent months the number of candidates we are gaining from online advertising on sites such as the job centre website has increased massively, when earlier in the year we were much more reliant on recruitment consultancies to find suitable candidates for our roles. Even for quite specialised roles we are seeing an increase in direct applications as there are so many more people competing for fewer jobs. Whilst this may be a good result for companies’ recruitment budgets, it shows a very sad state for the country and the millions of people now struggling to find work. And it seems that younger workers are suffering more than most, as according to The Prince’s Trust, two fifths of people who became unemployed in the last three months were under 25 years old.
The Government is looking to implement a training scheme for unemployed people, allocating £158million in funding to help people who have lost their job to re-train and hopefully find alternative career and employment options.
The end of a 99 year era for Woolworths
December 11, 2008
Today brings the sad news that all 815 Woolworths stores across the country will start closing down sales this morning. The famous retail chain went into administration at the end of November with debts of £385million, and Deloitte, the administrator has been trying to find a buyer, but with nobody having come forward, the closing down sale starts today to try to pay back some of the debt. Many stores already have 50% off sales, but this looks set to drop even further, and flocks of bargain hunters are expected to descend on stores looking for cheap Christmas presents such as CDs, DVDs and children’s toys.
This is very sad news for 30,000 employees who are now worried about the likely loss of their employment at the worst possible time. Consultation on redundancy is due to start with all staff, some of which have very long service with the company. It is hoped that if some of the store sites are bought by other retailers such as Sainsbury’s and Asda, then some of the staff will be offered employment at the new store.
According to reports, this is the most striking indication of the devastating effect of the credit crunch so far.
Welfare reforms look set to change benefit entitlements
December 9, 2008
This week a white paper is to be published on the proposed shake up of the welfare state, and if the proposals are implemented it will mean that many more people who claim benefits will have to prove they are looking for work or attending training in order to continue receiving their benefit payments.
The plans include medical testing for people claiming incapacity benefit, housing benefit reforms that will look at jobseekers allowance claimants’ living circumstances, and ‘work-fare’ schemes which force people to work in return for their benefits if they refuse to take a job.
Benefit entitlements will be split into three groups. The first group will be jobseekers allowance claimants, and from 2010 will also include single mothers whose youngest child is 7 or over. At the moment this group is entitled to income support until the child is 16. Lone parents of children between the age of 1 and 6 will make up the second group, as well as those claiming incapacity benefit. This group will be interviewed at the job centre for eligibility for work. The final group will be mainly people with a serious disability or mothers of very young babies. The new rules would also allow for benefits to be cut if claimants failed to turn up to interviews with the job centre.
Of course, there has been a lot of negative feedback on the proposals, from campaign groups, opposition politicians and rebel labour backbenchers. It is felt by many that the changes would cause big problems with the rising unemployment levels, and there are worries that the rules would be unfair on lone parents due to the lack of affordable childcare.
What do you think of these proposals?
Communication: the life blood of teamwork?
December 5, 2008
I was watching the news the other day and a really interesting story caught my eye. This was the story of David Nott, who was working as a surgeon in Congo for Medicins sans Frontieres, the international medical aid agency. The country has been war ravaged and Dr Nott was working at a hospital in Rutshuru when a 16 year old boy was brought in with a severely infected arm after it had been blown off in a gun fight and amputated by a doctor. The infection was so bad that Dr Nott knew the boy didn’t have long to live; the only option for his survival was a complicated operation to amputate the shoulder blade and collar bone as well as the arm.
Dr Nott had never carried out this operation before, and it would normally only be carried out in a well-equipped theatre with a lot of planning beforehand. But with the other option being certain death for the teenager, the surgeon decided to text a colleague in London whom he knew had carried out the operation before. Instructions were sent back over two text messages, and Dr Nott followed them to the letter. The boy survived the operation and has made a full recovery.
This is the type of story you rarely see in the media – a positive ending to a horrible event, and it was really inspiring to hear about someone thinking on their feet in a crisis situation and using really good communication with a colleague, across the world no less!
Pressure and CRB checks
December 4, 2008
The horrific case of Baby P and the failures of Haringey Council’s social care services to identify the ongoing physical abuse that had been inflicted on him, leading to his death, has been an extremely prominent news item in the last few weeks. Three members of the council have been suspended, and there have been calls for senior social and care services personnel to resign.
Now, a report that was commissioned by Ed Balls, children’s commissioner and carried out by Ofsted, the Healthcare Commission and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary has found that the process of gaining CRB checks for staff working in social healthcare for the local authority is unclear, and described it as ‘not good practice’. It seems that some staff have been working before their CRB checks have been completed, possibly without supervision. The report also said that the fact that the council relies heavily on agency staff is a problem because children need continuity in the support they receive, which is not provided with different agency staff all the time.
The issue of gaining CRB (Criminal Record Bureau) checks for staff can cause difficulties for some organisations. Many services, such as in social care, should not be provided without first gaining a check on a member of staff, but with major resourcing problems and the fact that a CRB can take weeks to come back, it’s no wonder some organisations feel as though they need to cut corners and let staff work before they are properly checked, because they simply have to provide staff to support the service users. In a previous role I worked for a provider of social care, and contracted employees were not allowed to start work before their CRB check was returned, as well as two satisfactory employment references. However this did cause issues with insufficient numbers of support workers, and this meant that the company was forced to rely heavily on agency workers on a constant basis.
I think the failures of Haringey Council in this case are appalling, but it’s important to remember that social services across country do a fantastic job the on the whole. I think the services are portrayed pretty badly in the media, with news stories always focussing on the negatives and characters on film and TV always portrayed in a really awful way. It’s a difficult job to provide a continuous and consistent service as well as keeping security and safety standards as high as are needed, and I think it would be a good start if the amount of time it takes for a CRB check to be returned could be reduced. Last time I applied for one it was at least three months before I received the paperwork.
Child protection is a constant job for providers of care and support services, and it is necessary for service providers to constantly review their processes and procedures, so that another horrendous case such as Baby P doesn’t happen again. However it needs to be recognised that this is a very difficult job, and more media attention should be given to the successes of support providers as well as the failures.
Woolworths & MFI enter administration
November 27, 2008
One of the biggest names on the high street has been forced to close its doors after it’s debts reaching £385million.
Woolworth’s has always been one of our favourite high street names, selling items such as Cd’s, DVD’s, Chocolates and it’s legendary pick ‘n’ mix but unfortunately bosses were unable to find a buyer to restructure the loss-making retail arm.
Staff at the store have been promised that they will be paid and that the majority of stores will stay open for the next few weeks to sell some stock before Christmas. But, this wont last for long and the future for Woolworth’s staff looks bleak.
Furniture retailer, MFI is also due to cut 1,500 jobs due to administration. This is the second time that they have had to declare themselves insolvent in the past few months.
26 stores are due to close immediately which means another 260 employees are jobless this Christmas.