Crystal Umbrella

Monster.co.uk have launched their ‘Keep the UK Working’ initiative with research into the current work practices within the UK. This survey has found that all workers, including freelance workers and contractors, are looking at the skills they have and deciding whether they need to re-train, or work in different sectors, in order to effectively recession-proof their work.

Product director for Monster, James Brian, commented that due to the current economic downturn, many workers feel like they are “waiting for the axe to fall”. This aim of recession-proofing careers has led to contractors and permanent workers alike to take “decisive action” in a bid to prevent this.

Brian continued, “These people are looking at their skills sets and are re-evaluating where it is they could be working so that they have a less interrupted career going forward.”

The research has also shown that twenty per cent of workers in the UK have considered a change of career altogether as a result of the recession. With regards to workers who have  been made redundant, over two thirds of respondents to the survey claimed that they would be looking for a career change. One third of those looking to change career said that this was in a bid to get better wages, this was closely followed by increased job security (cited by 28% of respondents).

Redundancies and unemployment are still on the increase with government figures confirming that UK unemployment had reached 2.43 million between April and June this year.

Monster’s Keep the UK Working Initiative will be coming to a city near you throughout September. The aim is for job-seekers to have the opportunity to meet with recruiters. Further details can be found at www.monster.co.uk

BT’s Global Services IT division has been hit with further troubles following the imminent departure of its chief executive, Royston Hoggarth. He only took up this high profile position back in 2008 but the past year has seen BT make a full year loss for only the second time ever. As a result, Hoggarth has been served his notice. This follows the redundancies of many contractors within the division over the past year. It is not clear, however, what Hoggarth’s severance package will amount to. He was earning an annual salary of £2.9 million including benefits. His replacement is Mark Quartermaine.

Hoggarth’s predecessor, Francois Barrault, also met the same fate when he was ousted last year. At the time this was attributed to the need for the IT serviced department to save money. Ian Livingstone spoke on behalf of BT to their shareholder magazine stating that addressing costs and lowering profit forecasts within IT services would set them back on the road towards economic growth.

However, this has not been the case. The Global Services division has continued to struggle financially. This has resulted in the announcement that 20,000 contractor positions will be deleted by next year in an effort to cut costs.

BT have publicly denounced the “unacceptable performance” of the Global Services unit after it contributed to an overall pre-tax loss of £134m. This was in comparison to their £2bn profits the previous year. This news resulted in the BT share price plummeting to its lowest since 1984.