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It seems that London’s dominance as the premier global financial centre is under threat following the Chancellor’s decision to tax bankers’ bonuses. Banks are apparently under significant pressure to move their operations to other parts of the world, including Zurich, New York and Hong Kong, whose tax regimes are more in their favour. This raises serious questions about the banks’ relationship with, and commitment to, many of their employees. (more…)

How should unemployed people react to the announcement that mental health co-ordinators are to be based in job centres, to provide cognitive behaviour therapy to help them back to work? Is this a surrealist nightmare which proves that 1984’s Big Brother is alive and kicking in twenty first century Britain? Or simply another incompetent policy generated by civil servants who are out of their depth struggling with the biggest unemployment crisis for a generation? (more…)

One of the great paradoxes of every recession is that more businesses fail as the economy recovers than they do during the downturn. This recession promises to be no different, as the players of Portsmouth FC, who have failed to receive their wages for November, are finding out. (more…)

Financial pundits seem to be confident that, despite last week’s scare, the problems in the Dubai economy will not seriously undermine global money markets. The same however may not hold true for jobs. (more…)

“Now is the Winter of Our Discontent”. The opening words of Shakespeare’s Richard III were used to describe the profound industrial unrest that took place in 1978-9 Schools and airports closed for lack of workers, and ambulance drivers struck,. For several months the country was riven by strikes. Rubbish piled high in the street. Thousands of petrol stations were closed. Schools and airports closed for lack of workers, and ambulance drivers struck, grave diggers in Liverpool downed tools. (more…)

A fifty seven year old man came to see me. He had come to this country as a young man, a refugee from war in his homeland. His immediate need when arriving in the UK was to earn money to send home and he got himself the first job that he could, a fairly menial job which paid relatively well given what he was used to, but which did not stretch or challenge him in any way. (more…)

This weekend we saw the first indications of how public spending cuts will impact on the working landscape. The Schools Minister suggested that education departments will save money by reducing top tier management; schools and colleges are likely to share heads and deputy heads. (more…)

We have reached the point, common to all recessions, at which economic growth is beginning to recover whilst unemployment continues to rise. History suggests that an improvement in the employment market lags about two years behind economic recovery. And this raises an interesting question. (more…)

We face two economic, career-impacting possibilities as the second half of the working year begins. On the face of it the most benign appears to be the most likely. But we live in a world of uncertainties and it would be prudent to ensure that we have a Plan B in case the worse occurs. (more…)

There is nobody with a job in one sixth of all homes. That figure is likely to increase over the next few months. If you are one the many unemployed, what can you do short of waiting for things to improve? (more…)