Making the Playfair links

Making the Playfair links

Unemployment

Unemployment concerns remain high. In Spain for example there are areas where the rate of unemployment, like in some parts of Andalusia, is 40%.
In the U.K June's labour market figures, show that overall unemployment increased by 23,000 between January and April, suggesting that the jobs outlook was still bleak. Ahead of the latest official figures being released, dole claimants outnumbered job vacancies by five to one, with London, the North East and Scotland the worst hit.

Cyprus conference 30 June 2010

http://www.archive.org/details/CyprusCentreatLondonMetConferenceCyprus50YearsofIndependence-PoliticalandEconomicAsp

TUC News

Earlier in June, the TUC published a report outlining how further cuts would damage Britain's chances of economic recovery and leave an even deeper deficit. All Pain, No Gain: The Case Against Cuts analyses economies that made severe spending cuts in the past, including Canada in the 1990s and Ireland more recently.
Summary details @
http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-18088-f0.cfm
Read full report @
www.tuc.org.uk/all_pain_no_gain

Columbia and Tus

Prison workers' union leader shot dead in Colombia
The TUC has protested yet again at another killing of a trade unionist in Colombia. Hernan Abdiel Ordonez Dorado, treasurer of the executive board of the prison workers' union ASEINPEC in Cali was shot dead by assailants travelling by motorbike. He had been involved in denouncing alleged acts of corruption by top prison officers at the Women's Prison.
http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-18076-f0.cfm

TUC statement

'The Coalition seems to wants to go far beyond efficiency savings and cuts in intrusive state activities such as id cards. We welcome the chance to engage but will press hard against cuts that threaten higher unemployment', the TUC said. ‘The worry must be that we will see cuts in support and help not just for the poor and vulnerable, but the services on which middle income Britain depends. And far from helping the private sector, whole sectors such as construction that depend on public procurement for much of their work look like the could be badly hit.’

TUC Press Release

Pensions

Information coming in shows that more than 30% of companies have closed future accrual of defined benefits to existing employees, up from around 14% last year, with a further 30% intending to do so in future. 87% of employers think their employees will not have enough saved for retirement. The majority of companies do not yet understand the cost and administrative impact of auto-enrolment. There is also a clear move from companies intending to offer former employees deals to transfer pension liabilities elsewhere whilst in the background the government have just announced their intention to abolish the compulsory retirement age. There is a lot to watch out for on the pensions area most of us would expect to work at least until we are 70 if not 84!