The troubled Royal Bank of Scotland announced today the devastating news they are to cut 9,000 jobs worldwide. 4,500 of those are in the UK. The jobs cut will be ‘backroom staff’, eg employees who cannot under any circumstances be blamed for the crisis the bank finds itself in. Poor RBS.
Gordon Brown’s leadership skills are under even more pressure today, as the new unemployment figures were made official yesterday. The figures saw the highest increase in February since records began in 1971. 138,400 people lost their jobs in February, taking the total number of people out of work to 2.03 million people. Under pressure.
World leaders and financial experts were not surprised when the UK and the US entered deep recessions, and some were even smug enough to suggest that it would not hit their own country as their economy is not based on ‘a property boom and massive consumer debts’. Recession hits Europe, not just the UK.
Barack Obama has held his first radio and Internet speech as the President of the United States. Not surprisingly, he concentrated on how to fix the flailing economy. His very expensive and complex plan is now being considered by congress, and also by the public, but they already had their say about two and a half months ago. Obama wants swift and expensive action.