Unemployment ranks continue to swell

As the recession continues to bite more and more companies are going into administration or reducing the size of their workforce.

Yesterday shoe sellers Barratts and Priceless went into administration threatening the jobs of more than 5,000 people. The administrator Deloittes has stated that the shops are all currently open and trading as normal although shares in the companies have been suspended.

Also the steelmaker Corus has announced that it intends to cut around 3,500 jobs and of this around 2,500 will be in the UK.

One of the few companies who have announced positive news recently has been McDonalds who intend to open 1,000 new stores in 2009.

Unfortunately whilst some people are claiming to see the green shoots of recovery I think they are seeing things and expect more jobs to be lost over the coming months as more businesses that have been teetering on the edge suddenly fall off the cliff or are pushed by their banks!

Not that the banks themselves are immune with Barlcays having announced it is to cut around 4,000 jobs, Ulster Bank expects to lay off around 750 staff and fairly soon Lloyds will start to streamline their new Halifax and Bank of Scotland operations making possibly several thousand people redundant.

The only good news seems to be that next year should be a better and I'm not referring to 2010 not the Chinese New Year which has just started or am I talking a lot of ox!