Tag: UK

How Interest rates affect the employment market- The UK Knack Group

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The UK Knack Group would like to provide some insight into how interest rates affects employment levels. The association between the two is very easy to understand.

A larger-than-expected decrease in the monthly employment rate causes interest rates to increase.

More employed people are putting more money into circulation. An increase in available cash means there are more pounds chasing the same amount of goods as were available the previous month.

Employers like The UK Knack Group require time to ramp up operations to meet the increased demand. In order to employ additional staff, companies may have to borrow money over the short term in order to meet payroll expenses or acquire more raw materials. In the case of UK Knack Group, people are its product and this effect is more easily seen.

Lenders experience an increase in loan requests. In this case, borrowers like The UK Knack Group are increasing demand on available money which results in higher interest rates charged by the banks and other lenders.

At the same time, central government lending agencies will raise their lending rates after analysing the bond markets, a move calculated to forestall inflationary forces. Banks borrow from the central lending agencies at a higher rate of interest and pass on the additional expense to their own borrowers such as UK Knack Group.

However, lower unemployment may affect interest rates more indirectly. Companies ramping up operations are often short of employees for a time who demand higher salaries.

Higher wages may drive prices higher. Again, more money is chasing fewer goods. Inflation may result, depressing the stock market.

Companies with lower cash flows coming in may need to borrow. Once again, banks begin lending at a higher interest rate to meeting the higher demand for loans.

When unemployment rates are around the -natural rate- of around 5.5% as determined by economists, interest rates remain stable, according to UK Knack Group information. This is called -equilibrium.- When that rate decreases, interest rates go up. Similarly, when unemployment increases, interest rates go down. They are inversely related, in other words.

UK Knack Group gives an example of this process. When the unemployment rate is above 5.5%, those who are out of work cut back on expenditures, lowering demand for goods and services. For instance, a family with an unemployed salary earner is less likely to dine out at a restaurant, which in turn requires fewer staff and food for preparation.

Consequently, farming and food-distribution families cut their expenditures, further depressing demand. There are fewer requirements for goods all along the supply chain, The UK Knack Group explains.

UK Knack Group provides an example of a economic turnaround as well. An office experiences a sudden increase in demand for its services and recalls some staff.

These staff now have higher expenses related to going to work every day such as commuting costs, updating career attire, and buying meals outside the home. Transportation companies, shops,and restaurants experience a higher level of business and call back unemployed workers.

At each level, more staff put more money into circulation and everyone wants to buy something, often at a higher price than before. Credit cards, a form of borrowing, are used to pay for goods and services.

Restaurants and shops may borrow money to meet short-term current expenses. Their suppliers extend credit for a few weeks, but they must add a certain percentage as interest. Suddenly, everyone is chasing money, and increased demand, and the cost of borrowing money goes up as well.

The Knack Group UK hopes these illustrations make understanding the interplay between unemployment and interest rates easier to understand.

About Author The Uk Knack Group consists of some of the most experienced professionals in the UK and abroad who have helped thousands of businesses and people to be more successful through Executive Search and Selection, Headhunting, Transitional Outplacement, Executive Career Management and Professional Training & Coaching. www.theukknackgroup.co.uk

Oil Field Employment 2 Big Reasons Why You Should Look For An Oilfield Job

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Oil field employment – high salaries, double what other industries pay; many perks and bonuses. Only the sin industries of gambling, tobacco and alcohol pay their workers as much money. Is it any wonder that many job seekers eagerly look for an oilfield job? But what are the actual benefits of jobs in oil field, and are they worth going through so much effort?

High Pay, Bonuses And Benefits

Government salary statistics gathered in 2004 report that rig welding jobs pay $62,000 compared to $30,000 for a welding job in the manufacturing industry. Entry level roustabouts make $45,000 while regular construction laborers makes $24,000. As you can see, the oil industry pays double the salary for blue collar jobs.

But white collar positions like petroleum geologists also earn high salaries. New graduates with Masters or PhD degrees earn $80,000 to $110,000, not including sign-up bonuses and other perks. Other degrees, like petroleum engineering and chemical engineering, are also paid very highly.

You can verify these salary data yourself – government agencies like the Department of Labor and trade associations like the American Association of Petroleum Geologists publish these salary information. So do job boards and recruitment agencies.

2. Oil Field Jobs Still Have Good Prospects

Shareholders and CEOs do not like it, but oil drilling companies still have to hire new people. Companies in the oil and gas industry still face personnel shortages, whatever their management says about laying off workers. In 2006, a UK government report highlighted that oil drillers did not have enough managers, professional and technical staff. The staff shortage got even worse in 2008, and just because there is a recession in 2009 doesn’t magically make oil companies have enough workers.

Many oil fields are past their prime and production is declining. Multinational oil companies like Shell desperately need to discover new oil fields. Their situation is made worse by an aging workforce, especially a lack of younger geologists qualified to prospect for oil. Like many other large oil companies, Shell froze hiring during the slump in oil prices ($10/barrel) during the 1980s, and they now need to find new workers to replace their retiring workers and man new projects and oil rigs. Noble Corporation, one of the world’s largest offshore drilling companies, is another case in point. They have 5 new oil rigs, and need to fill up to 1500 vacancies.

While oil service companies listed on the stock exchange like Schlumberger and Halliburton say that they will cut their workforce during the recession, the fact that they did not present concrete plans strongly suggests that the news is just a public relations stunt to boost their stock prices. They may slow down the hiring new workers, but the slack will be taken up by private oil drilling companies. This is just like the 80s, when the major oil companies stopped hiring new workers and stopped building oil rigs. Instead, private investors did the reverse. They invested in new oil rigs, then when oil prices recovered in the 2000s, they sold or hired out their oil rigs for enormous sums of money. Basically, oil field employment will always be around. The actual employer changes, that’s all.

Once you get your first oilfield job, you can expect good salaries and prospects for the next few decades. Whether you work for a public-listed oil company or a privately-held firm, oil field employment will be around for a long time to come.

Why you Need Employment Law Solicitors

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Employment law solicitors help the company’s employers and employees to resolve any issues related to the contracts or services according to the employment laws. They help and work legally as per the needs of both employer and staff members. As an employee, you need to be conscious about employment laws and regulations. Employment law solicitors understand the rules of the entire employment system and fight for your legal rights in order to get profitable deal.

Employment law solicitors are needed in the below given situations:

1. In case of financial crisis if any company wants to dismiss any employee due to low performance, caught breaking company rules or any other reason than it becomes necessary to handle such situations legally. An employment law expert thoroughly study employment policies mentioned in company’s terms and conditions and guide you what exactly you should do to avoid any kind of further consequences. Such solicitors offer wide range of employment law services.

2. You can hire experts in case of wrongful dismissal, treated unfairly at work, expectant mothers, any complicated contract or any kind of injustice from employer side. Through their extensive knowledge, the experts help you a long way in conditioning your case. The professional solicitors keep you informed about the progress in your case and it makes you aware what steps have to be performed to get the greatest deal possible.

3. In case of discrimination due to any reason such as age, skin colour, sexuality, religion, gender etc. and unable to resolve such situations within the workplace. Race Discrimination Experts help you to fight legally against such unacceptable behaviour.

4. The employees’ contracts may change due to promotions or any change in the business rules. The employment lawyers make sure that there are no loopholes or conditions in the new staff contract so that neither employer nor any employee may exploit any contract.

5. You should take advice of employment lawyer for changing staff handbooks. To avoid misinterpretation, these handbooks should be maintained legally.

6. You can also take legal advice on how to follow the correct grievance and disciplinary procedures both as an employer or a staff member.

7. You can speak and take guidance from your employment lawyer if you think you have been unfairly dismissed from your work. It is better to take legal action if internal procedure is not proving successful.

Always choose right employment law experts

Try to select employment law experts which have necessary experience in dealing with the related issues. Check his/her qualification, success rates and number of such cases he/she have won. Check how many similar cases he has ever handled before. You can also ask friends, colleagues or well-wishers about any particular solicitor. They first analyse your situation and guide you what the future tactics are needed. As every situation is differ from other, so professional solicitors handle them in their own way.

Now it is important to make sure that your all documents and contracts must be legal and up-to-date to avoid any kind of trouble in the future.

Want any legal advice regarding your working issues? Just contact Whitecross Solicitors that provide advice and assistance to employers and employees and deal effectively with all legal issues in UK or visit us at www.whitecrosslawyers.com

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Whitecross Solicitors provide wide range of UK legal services delivered by professional Employment law solicitors, Immigration Experts, Commercial law experts within reasonable time frame.

Advantage And Importance Of Cemap Courses

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In comparison with most other professional qualifications, CeMAP does provide the gateway into a career which has shown consistent growth year after year. The main purpose of the CeMAP exams is to enable the mortgage adviser to qualify before he starts giving mortgage advice to the public. As a matter of fact, today CeMAP training and CeMAP qualification is mandatory for mortgage advisors. For people considering the mortgage industry as a career, CeMAP training is the vital first step. Without the CeMAP qualification, finding work in the mortgage industry is very difficult.

There is a shortage of CeMAP qualified advisers and the employment market for anyone freshly qualified through CeMAP training is very promising. Yet another encouraging fact is many existing mortgage advisers are approaching, or have already reached their retirement age, and as such there is expected to be a serious lack of qualified CeMAP professionals in the foreseeable future.

Generally, many people find it difficult to understand the concept of mortgage business. It is considered important that advising in the mortgage business after qualifying in CeMAP exams will provide these professionals a profitable and promising career.

A spokesman for the CeMAP examining body, the Institute of Financial Services, recently stated in an article that the mortgage industry must do its utmost to get new blood in. So at all levels of the mortgage industry there is growing concern about bringing enough new CeMAP qualified people into the mortgage business.

It is common knowledge that the mortgage market is currently going through a rough patch because of the financial crunch in the markets. But that should not deter the CeMAP aspirants as thousands of mortgages are still being approved every month and many mortgage brokers are still earning handsomely by selling protection products like life insurance, mortgage protection and re-mortgages. The long-term future of CeMAP qualified persons is extremely promising. CeMAP jobs and CeMAP vacancies are available in increasing numbers and to compete within this demanding environment CeMAP training is offered by CeMAP training providers.

Once you have completed your CeMAP training there are many employment opportunities in the market place. For students who have completed their CeMAP training, there are a number of companies waiting to recruit freshly qualified CeMAP people. These companies will then provide the practical, on the job training on the company’s products, systems and processes.

CeMAP UK training on mortgage advice courses meets the requirements of the financial services authority. CeMAP courses are recognized as a national qualification and it is considered as the important financial services benchmark. Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice is the recognized professional financial qualification for the job of a mortgage advisor in the UK and in many parts of Europe.

Excellent job opportunities are waiting for the people who complete the course and pass the CeMAP exams. When people pass the exams, they obtain certificate of mortgage advice and practice which entitles them to offer the service in the UK mortgage industry. The income of a mortgage adviser can vary from a modest sum to some staggeringly high figure depending on the person’s competence and work ethic.

Abbey Santander Illustrates Unfair Dismissal Remedy (reinstatement)

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Reinstatement, being the re-employment of the employee back into the role he was unfairly dismissed from (as though the dismissal had never occurred), is one possible remedy in the UK for unfair dismissal. In the high-profile case Chagger v Abbey National plc & Hopkins (2006), the Employment Tribunal found that Mr Chagger had been unfairly dismissed, and that both Santander Abbey National (the Spanish-owned UK bank due to be re-branded as Santander, and being part of the Banco Santander Group) and Mr Hopkins had discriminated against Mr Chagger on the grounds of race in respect of his dismissal. The Employment Tribunal took the rare step of ordering Abbey Santander to reinstate Mr Chagger in order to remedy its wrongdoing. Santander Abbey National, however, refused to comply with the Employment Tribunal’s reinstatement order. Following Abbey Santander’s refusal and failure to comply with the reinstatement order, the Employment Tribunal subsequently ordered Abbey Santander to pay Mr Chagger the record breaking 2.8 million compensation for his loss on the basis that he had not been reinstated. Santander Abbey National had terminated Balbinder Chagger’s employment in 2006, giving redundancy as the reason. He was employed as a Trading Risk Controller, earned about 100,000 per year, reported into Nigel Hopkins and was of Indian origin.

UK law views reinstatement of the unfairly dismissed employee as the primary remedy for unfair dismissal; reinstatement of the employee permits him to continue to enjoy the economic benefits of the role in the future and also restores the mental satisfaction that he enjoyed from his role. If reinstatement of the employee is not practicable, UK law then usually views reengagement as the next best remedy. Reengagement is re-employment of the employee into a different role to the one he was unfairly dismissed from (on terms and conditions as close as is reasonably practicable to those he was unfairly dismissed from).

After an Employment Tribunal makes a finding of unfair dismissal, it must ask the unfairly dismissed employee whether or not he wishes to be reinstated or reengaged. If the employee wishes to be reinstated or reengaged, then the Employment Tribunal has complete discretion as to whether or not to issue a reinstatement order or reengagement order. The Employment Tribunal will consider whether it is practicable for the unfairly dismissed employee to return to work for the employer and, where the unfairly dismissed employee was partly to blame for the dismissal, whether or not it would be just and equitable to issue such a reinstatement order or reengagement order.

Although they are the primary remedies, Employment Tribunals rarely ever order reinstatement or reengagement though. That’s because the reality of the process of litigation is that its vexatious nature often leaves the relationship between the employer and the unfairly dismissed employee beyond repair such that it is no longer possible for them to work together anymore; only in rare cases do Employment Tribunals decide that the relationship remains workable.

When an Employment Tribunal orders reinstatement or reengagement, then it is open for the employer to refuse to re-employ the unfairly dismissed employee. Unless the employer satisfies the Employment Tribunal that it was not practicable to comply with the reinstatement order or reengagement order, then the employer’s refusal to comply with the Tribunal’s wishes will give rise to increased compensation for the unfairly dismissed employee. If the Tribunal is dissatisfied with the employer’s reasons for refusing to comply with its wishes, then the employer will have failed to comply with what the law views as the best solution to rectify the wrong committed; then the Employment Tribunal will proceed to consider and award compensation as the next best remedy to address the employer’s wrongdoing.

Requesting reinstatement and/or reengagement may prove to be tactically useful for an unfairly dismissed employee because the employer’s failure to comply entitles him to be compensated in full for all his loss of earnings from the date of the unfair dismissal to the date of the reinstatement/reengagement order; the statutory limit (or cap) on the compensation amount does not apply. So, if the unfairly dismissed employee’s losses to the date of the hearing exceed the statutory limit, then reinstatement/reengagement should be seriously considered. Furthermore, employers generally dislike re-employing an unfairly dismissed employee so much that a credible application for re-employment could lead to higher offers of settlement from the employer. If the employer complies with the order of reinstatement/reengagement, then the employee will be expected to comply too.

The Chagger case did not end at the Employment Tribunal stage, however. The case was subsequently escalated to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), and recently had escalated to the second highest court in UK, the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal’s website showed the case was heard on 7 and 8 July 2009. The Court of Appeal’s records of the case were not available at the time of writing this article. However, the King’s Bench Walk set of barristers’ chambers reported (through their website) that the hearing was limited to the issue of compensation only (not race discrimination also). That suggests that the wrong of race discrimination committed by Santander Abbey National and Mr Hopkins seemed to have been finalised by the EAT, which upheld the original Employment Tribunal’s judgement that Mr Hopkins and Abbey Santander had discriminated against Mr Chagger on the grounds of race in his dismissal.