The CBI, Britians leading employers’ organisation, has revelealed a grim prediction in the number of job cuts the UK faces before the end of 2009. It has forecast that around 250,000 jobs will be cut from the manufacturing sector alone as the country faces a difficult climb out of the recession. This is in addition to the 77,000 jobs already lost in this sector so far this year. The total number of unemployed now stands at over 2 million, with a shortfall of job vacancies to match this number.
Reported factory orders for July have fallen to their lowest level since January 1992, proving that the manufacturing industry in Britian is continuing to decline. The CBI has stated that British export figures have been particularily disapointing, despite the weakening pound against the US Dollar and the Euro. Weakness in demand from Europe in particular has been sited as the main reason for poor export sales figures.
Offering some hope to the manufacturing industry and the economy as a whole is the news that the Monetary Policy Committee with the Bank of England has voted to keep interest rates at 0.5%.
In a slight contrast to the CBI, the Bank of England reported that the economy has not changed much since May 09 and the risk of GDP falling any lower was subsiding.
