Employment

Germany raises bar in fight for equal pay

12 Jan 2017

A new law will force companies to tell female employees how much their male equivalents earn. Companies complain it’s clumsy and costly. But they only have themselves to blame: despite anti-discrimination rules and voluntary pledges, the gender pay gap is still unacceptably wide.

Ma’s job offer to Trump is no Chinese peace pipe

11 Jan 2017

Alibaba founder Jack Ma met with the U.S. president-elect and pledged to create 1 mln jobs. Trump, well-pleased with this tribute, says he and the Chinese e-commerce tycoon will do "great things" together. There is less to both statements than meets the eye.

Obama leaves Trump with a tough job on jobs

6 Jan 2017

Creating nearly 16 mln new positions since the post-crisis nadir is pretty good. So is an unemployment rate under 5 pct. Not all labor indicators are so positive, but wages may finally be on the march. The new president's bold plans could clash with late-cycle economic realities.

Germany’s thriving job market no solace for Merkel

3 Jan 2017

Unemployment has fallen to its lowest since 1981, and the number of people in jobs is at a record. Chancellor Angela Merkel presided over this happy state but will struggle to leverage it in upcoming elections. Voters are more focused on less predictable flows of migrants.

Fund manager pay will be next to feel the squeeze

22 Dec 2016

Low returns, lacklustre performance and the growth of cheaper index-tracking funds are squeezing fees. That in turn means lower revenue and margins. To placate shareholders, asset managers will have to follow the example set by investment banks – and pay their people less.

Globalization backlash misses real danger: robots

20 Dec 2016

Voters are rewarding nativist politicians. But campaign promises to bring back manufacturing jobs will fail to deliver. That's because the bogeyman is automation, not open borders. Fighting past wars will render governments flat-footed in tackling current challenges.

Trump’s AC activism more hot air than cold jobs

1 Dec 2016

The president-elect is touting a deal to keep over 1,000 jobs at heating and aircon maker Carrier in Indiana, after blasting a planned move to Mexico during his campaign. It's a partial win that cost a state subsidy. Trump will milk the PR, but as policy it won't easily scale.

IBM understands the art of the deal

16 Nov 2016

Boss Ginni Rometty pitched President-elect Donald Trump with a job-training program, IT efficiency and a tax cut. They'd be good for IBM, and maybe even America. Conspicuously missing from her letter, however, is any mention of how Watson is bound to displace many workers.

Saudi’s women are its untapped economic resource

15 Nov 2016

In a society dominated by men, religion and petrol, women are very slowly wresting a few freedoms. The kingdom could help the economy by promoting more gender equality. This would be a more effective way of controlling its destiny than trying to influence the price of oil.

Global economic prospects look worse for women

1 Nov 2016

Even in highly equal Norway, new data shows women are barely present in some industries. These are exactly the sort of sectors that will benefit from a revival of government-backed spending programmes. Well-intentioned economic policies risk spreading their fruits unevenly.

German labour law not so bad, unless you’re a bank

13 Oct 2016

Only in Venezuela and China is it harder to sack workers. Teutonic industrial companies have learned to cope and job creation is booming. The only catch is that Germany’s labour-friendly rules are ill suited to the generous pay and hire-and-fire culture of global finance.

ING’s partial London confidence vote stacks up

13 Oct 2016

The Dutch lender is moving 60 staff to the UK capital even as Brexit fears push rivals to ponder leaving. London's financial centre status and talent pool remain big draws. And by relocating only execution-focused traders rather than sales staff, ING caps its downside.

Britain faces uphill battle taming gig economy

11 Oct 2016

About 14 million UK workers do a new type of casual, no-strings job. Business likes the looser arrangements, but so too do most giggers. With workers’ rights a priority, Theresa May will struggle to address the downsides of the new age without hitting some of its benefits.

U.S. jobs give Fed both cover and headache

7 Oct 2016

The economy added 156,000 jobs last month. That's decent but not stellar, allowing Janet Yellen to hold rates steady a week before the Nov. 8 presidential election. But wages and labor participation rose, giving Donald Trump enough to make the Fed a political punching bag.

Dubai could create its own demographic dividend

26 Sep 2016

The emirate has weathered low oil prices, but an unbalanced workforce means it is missing an economic opportunity. Only one in 23 active workers is a local, official data suggests. If Dubai can't turn citizens into workers, it might as well turn skilled workers into citizens.

Globalisation needs better cheerleaders

13 Sep 2016

Free trade and capital flows are often blamed for disadvantaging workers in the West. A new study suggests they have not all fared as poorly as many believe, and that domestic policies can make a difference. Still, statistics and studies alone won’t shake globalisation’s bad rap.

Sports Direct gets image overhaul half right

6 Sep 2016

The retailer released a harsh report about working conditions before its AGM and announced a corporate governance review. The trouble is both will have been done by its own legal advisers. To really change investors' minds, owner Mike Ashley needs a more independent stock take.

Contrary smoke signals bedevil Brexit firefighting

17 Aug 2016

An unexpected drop in the number of people claiming jobless benefit jars with other, grimmer survey data. Monetary policy has already been eased to manage any post-vote slowdown and a fiscal stimulus is likely. Clashing signals make it harder for policymakers to target such help.

Lloyds dividend machine gets post-Brexit dent

28 Jul 2016

The UK bank has cut back the volume of capital it expects to generate following Britain’s vote to leave the EU. Lloyds is a less risky bank than post-2008. But it is exposed to a domestic slowdown, and its dividend story now looks less compelling.

Sports Direct scandal debunks UK employment glory

22 Jul 2016

UK lawmakers have issued a damning report on the retailer and say working conditions hark back to Victorian times. Founder Mike Ashley has big problems to fix. But there’s a wider economic malaise if workers put up with such poor treatment even when the jobless rate is very low.