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.

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."

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.”

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.

More Job Cuts

If you picked up a Newspaper or turned on the television today you will have seen yet more news stories announcing job cuts from big firms. Today it was the turn of Jaguar Landrover (450 jobs), Barclays Bank (2,000) jobs and Grattan, the home shopping catalogue firm (1,000 jobs).

The pace of job losses seems to have accelerated since the start of the year, and it looks like it’s going to get worse over the coming months. So that got me thinking, what job sectors are likely to be the most recession proof.

It’s very clear to see that certain job sectors are suffering really badly at the moment, Banking and   to name a couple of the really obvious ones, but there must be some job sectors that are more resistant to the credit crunch and recession than others. I’m sure there will even be some niche job categories that will flourish during recession as consumer behaviour and spending habits change.

Top 5 Recession Proof Job Sectors

My research into this has revealed that some Job Sectors are indeed more recesion proof than others, here’s the top 5.

1.  
   

   

   Plumbing: There are over 30,000 unfilled plumbing vacancies in the UK are the moment. There seem to be two main reasons for this, firstly more school leavers than ever are going on to higher education which is has resulted in falling numbers of apprentices learniung a skilled trade. Secondly, Australia has lured away a lot of tradespeople who have abandoned the UK for a new life down under. Plumbers can charge as much as £85 call out fee and some earn in excess of £50,000 per year. The average salary is around £25-35,000.

2. IT: The UK’s IT industry is growing at five toeight times the national average and needs around 15,000 new entrants every year to meet current demand. Salaries in this sector have been fairing well as employers struggle to fill positions. The average salary is around £40,000 per annum.
3. Midwifery: The UK population is forecast to continue growing rapidly over the next 10 years and there are a high proportion of midwives due to retire over the next few years. According to the Royal College of Midwives, a further 10,000 new entrants are required to fill their places. Salaries range from around £19,000 for newly qualified midwives to £36,000 for senior roles.
4. Teaching: With 32,000 vacancies to fill each year and a 10% fall in applicants enrolling in teacher training during 2008, there is huge demand for teachers. The Government is even offering £5,000 ‘golden hellos’ to encourage more applicants. Newly qualified teachers can expect to earn up to £28,000 per year.
5. Public Relations: This one came as a bit of a surprise, but apparently  the media is becoming increasingly specialised and fragmented to the extent that organisations wishing to promote their brand are constantly looking for more cost-effective and targeted ways to get their message across. As such, sizeable chunks of an organisation’s advertising budget are being used for public relations campaigns. The UK PR industry is now worth over £6.5 bn and, with account directors typically earning £53,000 and more a year.

So that’s the Top 5 Recession Proof Job Sectors, look out for some follow up postings as I dig deeper into this and uncover those niche jobs and businesses that are most likely to flourish during recession.

The government’s plans for an internship scheme look like a smokescreen for the numbers of highly qualified jobseekers facing the dole.

This was the headline to a thought provoking article I read in the Sunday Times today. The article is right to question the Labour Government’s unveiling of a new student internship scheme, as it seems details of the scheme are rather thin on the ground. Two companies, Microsoft & Barclays, have announced their support for the scheme but further investigation reveals that they were both already planning to take on 200 and 100 interns respectively as they do every year. The Microsoft spokeswoman was even quoted as saying:

“We have had 200 paid interns a year for a number of years and we very much anticipate doing the same this year. In some ways it’s business as usual.”

So let’s look at the facts, the government have announced a job creation scheme but not revealed any substantive details on it and the two companies that have signed up for it aren’t planning to do anything different from what they normally do.

Well, excuse me if I seem to be a bit cynical here, but I can’t see many students or graduates jumping for joy over this announcement. No, the government needs to show much more commitment than that if they want to make any lasting difference. They should be looking at measures to seriously help employers hire graduates and there are plenty of measures they could adopt.

Come on Gordon, let’s see a bit more imagination and action.

Frozen food store Iceland Foods Ltd. came to the partial rescue of collapsed retailer Woolworths on Friday, saying it plans to create 2,500 jobs after buying 51 former Woolworths stores.

The deal with the administrators comes just 5 months after a previoius offer from Iceland Ltd of £50 Million for all of Woolworths stores was rejected.

Around three quarters of the stores it has bought in a deal with administrators appointed the run the collapsed company are in south England, including 10 in London.

Iceland Foods, which was founded in 1970 and bought by a consortium led by Icelandic investment group Baugur in 2005, did not immediately say whether it intended to rebrand the stores. It currently has 682 Iceland outlets across Britain.

Administrators for Woolworths closed all its stores in early January after failing to find a buyer for the business as a whole, which employed some 30,000 people.

Britain’s Woolworths was founded in 1909 as part of the U.S. chain, but the two no longer have any link. The company also is not related to Sydney-based Woolworths Ltd. or South Africa’s Woolworths Holdings Ltd.