Economic Indicators

Organisations in Asia Pacific look set to be least affected by the global downturn, with planning making them better able than their U.S competitors to ride the storm.

In tough times, the temptation is to slash jobs at the first sign of trouble. But knee-jerk cuts can prove more costly - and be more damaging - than trying to hang on to your staff.

British workers returning from their holidays have been greeted with the grim news that two million of them might be redundant by Christmas and many more could have lost their jobs by next summer.

Amid the daily deluge of economic gloom and doom, here's a spark of good news for U.S workers. Pay raises and bonuses look set to be held steady next year.

Job losses are starting to accelerate as the credit crunch, soaring prices and economic downturn move off the financial pages and start to become a reality.

Far from being omnipotent, the "boom generation" of business leaders have been caught unawares by the current downturn and are at a loss as to how they'll respond to it.

Soaring bills, collapsing house prices, tax rises and another grey summer. It's no wonder executives and employers are leaving the UK in droves.

Chronic traffic congestion, tax hikes and the credit crunch is putting at risk London's reputation as a one of the world's most attractive places for doing business.

Half of US workers believe that the American dream of a nice home, financial security for you and your family and hope for the future is now unattainable.

First the good news – senior British managers have seen their earning power increase dramatically this year. The bad news is they are also more likely to be out of a job.

Even wealthy Americans are being hit by the downturn, with the country's elite becoming increasingly concerned about their financial health and their retirement prospects.

More evidence has emerged that Americans are storing up financial problems for the future, with a quarter raiding their pension pots just to make ends meet.

Economic woes are rapidly beginning to filter across Europe, with nearly a third of British firms planning to freeze salaries and a fifth expecting to shed staff.

The global financial pinch means that middle managers and professionals are being forced to cut back on spending and even take second jobs to make ends meet.

Three quarters of execs looking for jobs in America are reporting a slowdown in the number of interviews coming their way - a clear sign the downturn is reaching right to the top.

Nine out of 10 British financial services firms believe the credit crunch will last for at least another six months.

If the U.S slips into a full-blown recession - as seems increasingly likely - the impact is going to be be felt in India as much as it is in Indiana.

Fears of a wave of redundancies in economies hit by the credit crunch could be being overstated, with many organisations instead adopting a "wait and see" approach.

Most British managers expect to see knee-jerk job cuts, short-termism and panic at the first whiff of recession.

Managers in the UK have been watching the growing economic storm with trepidation. And now there are signs that employers are poised to take an axe to their workforces.

Amid turmoil in the global financial markets, business confidence is on the decline and fear of recession has topped the list of worries that keep CEOs awake at night.

Finishing university in the UK and looking to enter the job market? Perhaps you may just want to go back to bed if the answer to that question is 'yes'.

With the rapidly darkening economic picture and a chronic shortage of talent, perhaps 2008 looks set to be a tough year in the workplace.

The credit crunch is beginning to cast its shadow over the jobs market, with the number of Britons placed in permanent jobs growing at its slowest rate for more than a year.

The recovery of the Japanese economy means more and better opportunities for students entering the workforce.

With the number of people in employment in the U.S. surging after big declines earlier this year, new figures suggest that the top end of the jobs market is also booming.

The number of unemployed people in the UK fell again in the three months to April, according to official figures. Trouble is, the official figures are not what they seem.

While Germany may still be known for its cars and Japan its micro-electronics, a new report claims that Britain is building a global reputation on the back of the export of knowledge.

Four out of 10 employers across the world are finding it more difficult to fill job vacancies this year, with sales people, skilled manual trades and technicians in particularly short supply.

More than four out of 10 companies in the United States achieved above-average levels of growth last year, confirming its status as the world's most dynamic economy.

We can all agree keeping workers healthy is a good idea, but making even just small inroads into tackling diseases such as cancer could give European economies a big financial boost, too.

Just in case chancellor Gordon Brown hasn't got the message, three separate heavy-weight reports have warned that excessively high business taxes are driving business away from the UK and discouraging investment.

Low levels of unemployment and steadily rising wages have left American workers, and particularly middle and senior managers, increasingly optimistic about their career prospects for this year.

With U.S. employers hiring more than 150,000 additional staff in December, all the signs are that strong overall employment growth is having a significant impact on higher-end jobs paying in excess of $100,000.

With retention problems growing and four out of 10 U.S. hiring managers expecting to increase their headcounts, the new year looks like bringing with it bigger paychecks, more opportunities for promotion and a greater sensitivity to work-life balance issues.

Large companies are growing increasingly disillusioned with the UK as an business location, with one in five considering relocating their headquarters out of the country because of high taxes.

British workers are the most pessimistic in the world about their job security but the confidence of American workers has reached an all-time high over the past six months.

When young Britons hear the word "industry" they automatically think of computers, technology and "success". But for older workers the word has much more negative connotations of decline, dirt and strikes.

Americans who have been unfortunate enough to lose their jobs during the first half of the year can are likely to have have found new jobs more quickly than in each of the past two years.

British business are over-taxed and over-regulated, the head of the the country's largest business organisation has warned, costing the country jobs, profit, investment and prosperity.

Economic migrants are not the answer to the Eurozone's looming demographic crisis, a new report has claimed. Instead, Europeans could find themselves having to retire later and work longer hours to stave off economic decline.

The world's leading economies risk economic harm unless they tackle the number of people who are out of work and living on disability benefit, governments have been warned.

Management consulting has become a significant global economic force, creating revenues of $125bn around the world, and more than £10bn in the UK alone, a new study has found.

Higher energy costs and the bill for training and employing workers are putting British businesses under more pressure, yet most still feel more upbeat about their future prospects than they did six months ago.

The influx of economic migrants from Eastern Europe is helping to keep Britain's economy "surprisingly robust", according to a survey by Ernst & Young.

Last year was a record in the UK for management buy-outs, but 2006 is looking distinctly cooler, with the number of MBOs during first quarter of the year at their lowest levels for more than two and a half years.

This year is looking increasingly promising when it comes to job prospects and salary increases for U.S. graduates as employers' demand for educated labour grows.

Despite the carnage wrought by hurricanes during 2005, the great majority of employers across the six U.S. states most affected stood by their employees, belying predictions of a wave of layoffs and benefit reductions.

Thought-provoking stuff from Stephen King, managing director of economics at HSBC, writing in the Independent.

The next 15 years will see knowledge workers become organisations most valuable source of competitive advantage as an ageing population and the eastwards shift of economic power bring profound changes to the global economy.

America's CFOs are bullish about the prospects for their companies and the economy in general, with their optimism reaching the highest it has been in almost two years.

Businesses have criticised British Chancellor Gordon Brown's budget yesterday for failing to do enough to address how firms can improve their competitiveness and productivity on a global stage.

As Britain's chancellor, Gordon Brown, prepares to deliver his tenth – and probably last - Budget, Jeff Randall in the Daily Telegraph lambasts the yawning gap between government spending and income.

British businesses are being hit hard by the spiralling cost of energy, and some could even be forced to shut down, industrialists have warned.

British businesses are being squeezed by a combination of stealth taxes, cost pressures and ever fiercer international competition, putting the country's competitiveness at risk, captains of industry have warned.

In a challenge to the accepted wisdom that the U.S. is the best place in the world in which to run a business, a new report has found that companies in the U.S. find running a business just as challenging - if not even more so - than those in the UK.

Australian job seekers are getting itchy feet, posting 46 per cent more job applications in January than at the same time last year and posing a potential retention headache for employers.

Three-quarters of senior executives in North America, Europe and Asia are optimistic about the growth prospects for their companies and industries in 2006 and view competition as a bigger threat than the health of the global economy.

Western Europe and the U.S are experiencing a dramatic slump in their rates of productivity growth as the emerging markets of central and eastern Europe, China and India continue to flex their economic muscle.

Business confidence in the UK is flat, despite a glut of research pointing to a pick-up in the economy, business leaders have warned.