The construction industry had a total labour force of 2.15m in Q2 2023, equivalent to some 7% of the total UK labour force. This compares with the pre-pandemic level of 2.3m in Q1 2020 and the peak over the past twenty-five years of 2.6m in Q3 2008 just as the global financial crisis was starting. The employment trend can be
On 25 May 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) wrote to all of the UK’s authorised loan-based peer-to-peer (“P2P”) crowding platforms, to express its concern about areas of potential harm for investors (i.e. lenders). Amongst the four areas listed was the adequacy of current wind-down plans (WDPs), their triggers, and liquidity monitoring. In its latest communication to the P2P sector
More mixed signals on the economy mean uncertainty for UK businesses We finished 2023 with arguments raging on whether the UK was already in a shallow recession or might end up in one early this year. Now we have another batch of confusing signals. The respected EY Item Club have just upgraded their GDP growth forecast for 2024 to 0.9%
Near the top of the list of worries that keep many manufacturing bosses awake at night is hiring and retaining the right talent for an industry being overwhelmed by helter skelter technological change. Recruiting enough people was already a problem in a tight labour market, but the emphasis is increasingly moving away from the number to getting hold of staff
A driver shortage in the trucking industry is nothing new. From the very start, the job has been seen as an unattractive option with its long and anti-social hours, primitive working (and living) conditions and poor job satisfaction. The current statistics for road haulage drivers There are just over 400,000 registered HGV vehicles according to the Road Haulage Association (RHA),
Last month’s Autumn Statement was heavily focused on boosting the UK’s poor level of business investment, rightly identifying that without much higher investment, the productivity improvements required to restore the economy to meaningful growth will be unachievable. The scale of the problem The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has confirmed that real-term business investment in the UK was still at a
