Economic Indicators

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.

British employers see skills' shortages as a greater threat to business performance than the rising price of oil or the fragility of consumer spending, new research has said.

The U.S. executive jobs market is expected to gain significant momentum in the year ahead as a new survey finds that seven out of 10 recruiters are confident of an upsurge in hiring over the next six months.

Hundreds of thousands of Germans are voting with their feet and leaving the country in the hope of finding better prospects abroad. More than 150,000 packed their bags and left in 2004, many of them skilled professionals.

The jury is still out on whether U.S. jobs prospects in 2006 will be better or worse than this year, with a wealth of survey data providing support for both points of view.

Britain's economy will get stronger next year, but the good news will not be translated into more jobs as employers focus on cutting costs rather than expanding headcounts.

Productivity growth in Britain – described by Chancellor Gordon Brown as "the fundamental yardstick of economic performance"- has collapsed to its lowest level in 15 years.

The impact of housing costs on economic activity in economic hot-spots has been thrown into the spotlight after new research found that a shortage of affordable, good quality housing is having an impact on three quarters of London businesses.

Employment prospects in Britain are amongst the brightest in Europe, with the jobs market in London in particularly rude health. Meanwhile, U.S. employers plan to keep hiring steady into 2006, marking two years of relatively consistent figures.

High taxes and excessive regulation threaten to push Britain out of the top 10 of the global competitiveness league as research finds that the U.S. remains the most competitive place in the world in which to do business.

Britain's overloaded transport system is damaging the economy and the reputation of the UK as a place to do business and needs £300 billion of investment over the next decade if things are to improve, employers have warned.