McDonalds bucks the recession by announcing today that it will create 12,000 part time jobs and open 240 new restaurants in Europe this year.

According the Financial Times, the company will hire 50 people at each of the 240 new restaurants, mostly in Spain, France, Italy, Russia, and Poland, the newspaper said. 

The fast-food company also plans to add about 400 new McCafes to the 800 it already has in Europe this year, the report said. 

Denis Hennequin, president of McDonald’s Europe, said there were "no signs of weakening" in the company’s European business, but acknowledged consumers, particularly in Germany and Spain, were favoring the cheapest menu items.

When McDonald’s reports fourth-quarter results on Monday, analysts expect the company’s profits will rise 10%, the newspaper said.

Look out for an extended article on Part Time Fast Food Jobs on Part Time Jobs London soon.

If you are considering part time freelancing, you could be wondering whether or not you really could support yourself and your family on a freelance income. Freelancing is actually one of the most profitable business opportunities for people who want to work at home. Here are a few of the reasons why freelance jobs working from home can be very profitable.

Employers pay freelancers a higher rate than a salaried employee.

Hiring freelancers allows an employer to pay only for the work that needs to be done, without the additional costs of National Insurance, Holiday Pay, Tax, Pension Contributions, and the other overhead costs involved in hiring an on-site worker. Thus, as a freelancer, you’ll be earning a higher hourly rate than you would if you did the same job as a full-time employee.

You can work on multiple freelance projects for many employers at once, which means multiple streams of income.

The more productive you are, the more you can earn. At your day job, you don’t get paid based on your productivity, but as a freelancer, you get paid once you get the job done. If you’re ambitious, work hard, and get things done right the first time as a freelancer, your reward is having more time to spend on more work. Your income is only limited by the amount of jobs you are able to complete.

You set your own rates.

As a freelancer, you have the ability to evaluate a project before you begin and offer a price quote you feel is fair for both you and the employer. If the employer is not willing to pay your rate, you can either lower your rate or spend your time looking for jobs that pay more. Most freelancers don’t have an hourly nor per-project rate that is set in stone. They profit by adjusting their rates based on the difficulty level of each project.

Work whenever you want.

As a freelancer, you control your schedule. You’re the one in charge of how much you work and when you work. Many freelancers thrive on the extra dollars they earn on weekends, or by working late a few nights per week. Others profit by working part time jobs and freelancing in the evenings.

Microsoft today announced that it is to cut 5,000 jobs around the world  over the next 18 months. The announcement comes after Microsoft reveal an 11% drop in profits. 58 Jobs will be cut in the UK immediately, which equates to 2% of the 2,900 staff employed in Britain, no assurances were given that further job cuts in the UK wouldn’t follow in the coming months.

Richard Williams, analyst at Cross Research, said: "This is a substantial amount of jobs cuts. Microsoft has never had a layoff like this in my knowledge and it’s sending a signal that the times are definitely changing."

Microsoft Job Cuts Press Release

More doom an gloom today as latest figures just released show that the number of people losing their jobs surged to 225,000 in the 3 months to November 2008, bringing the jobless total in the UK to 1.92million, the highest it’s been for over a decade.

The  UK now has an unemployment rate of 6.1% and the 2 million is expected to be broked within the next month following a spate of job cuts since the start of the year. 

 The figures released today also show that the number of job vacancies fell by 69,000 to 530,000, the lowest figure since records began in 2001. Most job sectors have shows a fall, with Finance showing the sharpest drops. 

Employment Minister Tony McNulty said: "In these tough times, people need real help to find a job. That’s exactly what this Government is offering and every day people are finding work.

"These figures show that whilst more people are claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, 231,000 have come off in the last month as people take advantage of the extra help on offer.

"The Government is doing all it can to ensure economic stability for businesses, homeowners and jobseekers. The measures that we have introduced over the recent months are designed to support the recovery of the economy and ensure that people have the best support to get back into employment.

"Every person looking needs to know that there are jobs out there and we will give you the support you need to fill one of those half a million vacancies that are available right now. We will continue to ensure everyone who loses their job has access to the full range of support that Jobcentre Plus has available.

"Our message to job seekers is clear – we won’t give up on you but you mustn’t give up on looking for work."

Getting paid to play video games must be one of the more obscure part time jobs that I’ve come across and I have to admit I was pretty surprised when I stumbled across the Game Testing Ground website. This isn’t the kind of job you are likely to find down at your local job centre!

But it does kind of make sense, I read recently that the Games Industry is expected to be reasonably recession proof. The logic being that people are more likely to stay at home when money is tight and if they are at home they are going to be watching TV, playing video games and messing around on the Internet. 

The Game Testing Ground website states that the games industry is a $50  billion dollar industry, which is confirmed by an Informa report on the popular Games Industry Website GamesIndustry.biz . That’s a pretty staggering figure, but when you learn that Halo 3 grossed $300 Million in it’s first week  and these games can cost Millions to produce it puts it into perspective. You can certainly see why the big games companies are happy to pay an army of testers to make sure their next Blockbuster game is just right before they launch it. 

Today the UK Government announced that it is going to force employers to publicise job vacancies through JobCentre Plus before advertising them abroad.

The move designed to give UK Residents priority access to skilled job vacancies comes in advance of UK employemt figures due on Wednesday that are expected to show a steep increase in the number of unemployed. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the greater exposure would give UK workers the "first crack of the whip".

However, opponents argue that European law prevents employers from favouring one EU worker over another on grounds of nationality. The Tories were critical of the announcement saying it was pointless without an annual immigration cap.

It is thought that the most affected jobs categories will be

• primary school teachers,
• some categories of nurses,
• hotel managers and
• construction workers

JobcentrePlus

The workforce on the 2012 London Olympics is set to triple this year with further apprenticeships pledged. Whilst this doesn’t strictly fall in to the Part Time Jobs category it is significant enough to warrant a mention.

In an article published this week over at  building.co.uk the ODA (Olympic Delivery Authority) are quoted as saying that Up to 30,000 construction jobs will have been created on the Olympic site in east London by 2012.

The workforce on the Olympic park and Olympic village is expected to rise to 11,000 later this year, from the present level of 3,315.

The ODA this morning announced an additional 250 apprenticeship opportunities on top of the 2,000 already pledged. Firms bidding for new contracts would have to ensure that at least 3% of the workforce are apprentices.

ODA chairman John Armitt said: “We are also delivering vital business, jobs and training opportunities in a tough time for companies and workers. Maximising apprenticeships on the Olympic park is an important boost to this legacy.”

The announcement yesterday that Waitrose are creating 3,000 new jobs makes it a very opportune time to take a closer look at Part Time Supermarket Jobs.

Supermarkets employ a lot of staff, Tesco for example employ over 360,000 people in the UK, so there is always a good supply of part time jobs in supermarkets. Some recent sales figures would also suggest that the big supermarkets may be more resistant to the current echonomic downturn than many other sectors. After all, we’ve still got to eat!

Whilst supermarkets catering to the luxury end of the market may be feeling the pinch, just look at recent M&S announcements, the discount supermarkets seem to be doing very well at the moment.

I’ve actually worked part time for a couple of supermarkets over the years and they were pretty good companies to work for. My first supermarket job was as a student working evenings and weekends on the Deli counter of a local store. A few years later in my mid 20’s I worked on the night shift in a large store, stacking shelves. Both jobs were pretty good, I’ve had worse jobs before and since. Infact the nightshift job was very good, there was a great sense of camaradery in the night shift team and we had a good laugh. We did work hard, but it was a good atmosphere and one of the benefits of working strange hours was that wages were good.

So if you haven’t considered working in a supermarket before, here are a few reasons why you might want to:

• There will be quite a few supermarkets reasonably near your home that will frequently have part time positions available.
• There is a wide variety of jobs in the supermarket to suit different ages of employee and different skills and preferences.
• There are good opportunities for promotion once you get your foot in the door. You will find full time jobs and management trainee positions more accessible from within the company. I even got asked if I wanted to get put down for a night manager trainee position within 3 weeks at the store where I was working.
• The supermarkets are all pretty good employers. Being large companies they know the score when it comes to employees rights and generally look after their staff very well. 
• With supermarkets open from early in the morning until into the evening, or even 24 hours, you will be sure to find jobs that suit the times of day ot night that you want to work. If you are a student looking for something in the evenings or weekends, a mother looking for a few hours while the kids are at school or you don’t mind working night shiftsa supermarket could be a good place to start your part time job search.

The UK supermarkets all have careers sections on their websites but the jobs listed on them are generally for managerial, head office and specialist positions. Most of the UK supermarkets also run Graduate Recruitment programs and you’ll find details of these on the websites listed below. However, recruitment for part time in-store jobs is always handled at a local level, so the best plan of action is to visit your local stores and make enquiries there. Stores will often have a notice board displaying jobs in the store, failing that, seek out one of the managers or team leaders.

UK Supermarket Jobs Links:

• Tesco
• Asda
• Waitrose
• Sainsbury’s
• Morrisons
• Co-op
• Aldi
• Lidl
• Iceland
• InRetail – Retail Recruitement Agency

It’s been a bad week for job cut announcements, but it is nice to finish the week with a little bit of good news.

The supermarket chain Waitrose has today announced that it will create 3,000 new jobs this year as it adds 22 new stores to it’s portfolio. 

The increase in stores comes as a result of an agreement to purchase 13 former Somerfield stores and open a further 9 new ones, with work due to commence on converting and opening the new stores in the Spring. 

Waitrose managing director Mark Price said  "There is a real weight of evidence that businesses that continue to invest during tough economic times fare much better when the economy begins to recover. Our new shops will help ensure Waitrose is in the best shape possible coming out of the recession".

This bodes well from a Part-Time-Jobseekers point of view as Supermarkets employ a lot of part time employees, offer a good varierty of positions to suit different age groups. Some of the UK supermarkets also fair pretty well in the list of best companies to work for.

Look out for an extended article on Part Time Jobs in Supermarkets coming soon.

More bad news today as South West Trains announced that it is set to axe 480 jobs. A spokesperson for the company said "In common with other rail operators we have carried out a review of our cost base to ensure we are operating as efficiently as we can in view of reduced passenger growth and an increasingly challenging economic climate"

“We are proposing to reduce the costs of our rail operation and make some changes to the way we manage our business but we will continue to operate the same number of train services for our passengers.”

That brings the number of job cuts announced this week to 8,630 with the biggest losses coming from Barclays Bank who have announced job cuts of 4,100 this week.