A further indicator of the downturn in the economy is dished up by Reuters as they announce 3,000 job cuts leading up to 2005. This is on top of the 3,200 over the past two years. The company is facing increasing competition in it’s main markets. Their main rival is Bloomberg, but they are facing competition from my ex-employer Thomson Financial. My redundancy was caused by a re-alignment within Thomson as they went after the “big two” of Reuters and Bloomberg. I don’t take this announcement to mean that Thomson and Bloomberg are winning, only that there will be more consolidation (redundancies!) within the market. Perhaps Reuters just need to spend more time concentrating on the real news.

Perhaps it’s an omen that the Reuters redundancies come on the same day that Asda announces an expansion plan!

Listening to the radio, the discussion was about exporting jobs as more call centres are opened in India. Reading the newspaper, the article said that we are importing foreign workers to staff the NHS. It’s no wonder I can’t find a job.

Does the Job Centre really need to use a recruitment agency to hire staff?


posted by Martin Wright at 11:12 am | Link

Yes, I’ve been spending quality time with the web site. I’ve worked through a backlog of emails of support from visitors. It’s great to have the encouragement of strangers. Thank you.

With the result that I’ve not been job seeking as much as I probably should have. But this investment of time in myself seems so much more valuable than ploughing through countless job sites. There has to be a point at which the amount of time spent job hunting becomes wasted. As they would do in Sex and the City… Am I less likely to find a job by looking?

Each hour spent fruitlessly looking for a suitable vacancy is another hour not spent on developing a new skill to add to my CV. If I’ve not found a job with these skills in the last 3 months, why should it appear today?

As part of the new links from new found bloggers, selected excerpts on the frustration of job seeking courtesy of Jon Baas and Emily Hanson.

If you’re fed up with being rejected by employers then why not reject the economy?

posted by Martin Wright at 9:51 am | Link

No doubt Ken is regretting not introducing the congestion charge a couple of days earlier to profit from the 1 million people flocking to central London for the war protest. He could have made a bomb! And hidden it. Although he would probably have been caught on one of his 688 cameras. Big Brother is never far away!

Remember that under the Data Protection Act you may request the footage of yourself on any camera you think you may have appeared. (This information courtesy of the now apparently defunct Mark Thomas Product).

A couple of good articles in the Guardian. Been laid off? Don't take it lying down got me thinking about how little Jobseekers Allowance I will receive in comparison to the 6 years of National Insurance payments I have made. I was shocked when the article reminded me that I will only receive JSA for 26 weeks. Paid fortnightly at £107.90 this only comes to £1402.97 when my NI payments have been…. somewhat higher than that (per year!) Licence to skill seems to imply that as I am literate and can communicate I am way ahead of the competition. Unles I red wrong.

And finally, a thank you to the HR Advisor from the Post Office who wrote to me for a second time to re-iterate their non-interest in employing me! There’s nothing quite like a kick when you’re down.

posted by Martin Wright at 11:43 am | Link