Search Results for: economic

Shortage of tech skills and 600,000 job vacancies costing UK economy £63 billion a year

Shortage of tech skills and 600,000 job vacancies costing UK economy £63 billion a year

by • News, Technology, Workplace

An estimated 600,000 vacancies in digital technology are costing the country £63 billion a year, according to information provided by techUK in a report on skills shortages published by the Edge Foundation.The second of the education charity’s bulletins on the UK’s skills shortages, shines a spotlight on the tech industry and the devastating economic impact of the government’s failure to encourage young people to study relevant subjects and upskill existing workers. The bulletin, Skills Shortages in the UK Economy, brings together the most current statistics and analysis of skills shortages in the UK which cost the economy £6.3 billion each year in direct costs such as recruitment and temporarily filling gaps, according to the Open University’s 2018 Business Barometer.

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Half of CIOs say Artificial Intelligence will lead to more jobs and improve productivity

Half of CIOs say Artificial Intelligence will lead to more jobs and improve productivity

by • AI, Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace

Half of CIOs say Artificial Intelligence will lead to more jobs and improve productivity

Fears that Artificial Intelligence will destroy the job market are not shared by more than half (51 percent) of UK CIOs who see AI as a job creator. This is more than three times the number who say that it will diminish workers’ job prospects (16 percent). For the survey UK CIOs were asked, ‘Artificial intelligence is changing the way that companies operate and people work. Do you think AI will have a positive or negative impact on job creation and recruitment?’ Their largely positive response closely reflects that of a recent PWC report which predicts AI could create as many jobs as it displaces in the UK over the next 20 years. (more…)

Barclays to create up to 2,500 jobs at new Glasgow tech hub

Barclays to create up to 2,500 jobs at new Glasgow tech hub

by • News, Property

Barclays has announced plans to develop a new campus at Buchanan Wharf, Glasgow, which will provide what it claims is a state-of-the-art workplace for the bank’s functions, technology and operations teams. The aim is to create a working environment that will ‘help the bank deliver outstanding services to customers and clients by fostering innovation and collaboration’.  Barclays has agreed to purchase the campus development from Drum Property Group Ltd and is currently working with them to finalise the design of the new facility as part of the wider Buchanan Wharf development. It is expected that, once completed, the campus will be able to accommodate up to 2,500 additional roles, doubling Barclays’ current workforce in Scotland and making the bank one of Glasgow’s biggest commercial employers.

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Progress stagnates on gender diversity in senior roles at FTSE 350 companies

Progress stagnates on gender diversity in senior roles at FTSE 350 companies

by • News, Workplace

Achieving the government’s target of women making up a third of FTSE 350 board members by 2020 is beginning to look increasingly unlikely,according to executive training organisation The Pipeline’s annual Women Count report. It claims that there has been no progress over the last year in the number of women on executive committees and that 16 companies no longer have any women in ‘profit and loss roles’ which brings the total to 147, while eight companies no longer have any women on the committees at all. Yet the positive value for having greater gender diversity with women in executive positions is unquestionable, according to the authors.

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Artificial intelligence will create more jobs than it displaces, claims new study

Artificial intelligence will create more jobs than it displaces, claims new study

by • News, Technology

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related technologies are projected to create as many jobs as they displace in the UK over the next 20 years, according to new analysis by PwC. In absolute terms, around 7 million existing jobs could be displaced, but around 7.2 million could be created, giving the UK a small net jobs boost of around 0.2 million. While the overall net effect of AI on UK jobs may be broadly neutral, this varies significantly across industry sectors. The most positive effect of AI is seen in the health and social work sector, where PwC estimates that employment could increase by nearly 1 million, equivalent to around 20 percent of existing jobs in the sector. On the other hand, PwC estimates the number of jobs in the manufacturing sector could be reduced by around 25 percent, representing a net loss of nearly 700,000 jobs.

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Hong Kong Central remains most expensive office market in the World, according To CBRE

Hong Kong Central remains most expensive office market in the World, according To CBRE

by • News, Property

Hong Kong Central remains the most expensive office market in the world, according to CBRE’s annual Global Prime Office Occupancy Costs report. Hong Kong Central’s overall prime occupancy costs of US$307 per sq. ft. per year topped the “most expensive” list, followed by London West End (US$235 per sq. ft.), Beijing Finance Street (US$201 per sq. ft.), Hong Kong Kowloon (US$190 per sq. ft.) and Beijing Central Business District (US$189 per sq. ft.).

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Companies need to capitalise more on enthusiasm for data amongst the workforce

Companies need to capitalise more on enthusiasm for data amongst the workforce

by • AI, News, Technology, Workplace

Companies need to capitalise more on enthusiasm for data amongst the workforceA major global report has revealed a lack of confidence in data is limiting corporate success in the emerging era of robotics and automation. The global research launched by Qlik, has revealed an escalating skills gap preventing business decision-makers asking the right questions of data and machines. Despite McKinsey reporting that up to 800 million global workers will lose their jobs by 2030 as a result of automation and robotics, and Gartner hailing data literacy at the must-have skill in the workplace, most business decision-makers (76 percent) lack confidence in their ability to read, work, analyse and argue with data. The highest level of doubt in data skills can be found among European executives (83 percent), followed by those in APAC (80 percent) and the US (67 percent). According to the report, as organisations look to be data driven, those employees who can read, work, analyse and argue with data will be able to contribute more to their roles and organisations and employers need to capitalise on this enthusiasm to drive the programme for data literacy.

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The self-employed enjoy higher levels of wellbeing and happiness, but work still needed

The self-employed enjoy higher levels of wellbeing and happiness, but work still needed

by • News, Wellbeing

Policymakers and business leaders must work to improve wellbeing among the self-employed, a new report by the Centre for Research on Self-Employment (CRSE), has said. Instead of exploring self-employed wellbeing through the conventional prism of economic success, the report, The Way to Wellbeing, adopts a new approach. It considers people’s overall life satisfaction, based on their subjective assessments of various aspects of their lives – including jobs, income, health, family life and leisure. The report found that wellbeing was higher among self-employed people by using subjective assessments of different aspects of their lives. This is the first time a major report of its kind has taken a holistic view of wellbeing – looking at jobs, health, family life and leisure – to build an overall picture of life satisfaction, rather than just using a narrow measure of economic success.

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Global employers focus on mobile talent to help support new ways of working

Global employers focus on mobile talent to help support new ways of working

by • Cities, Facilities management, News, Workplace

Global employers focus on mobile talent to support future ways of workingThe digital era, ageing populations, skills shortages, and unpredictable political and economic contexts are persuading multinationals to focus more on mobile talent, new ways of working and assessing the cost of expatriate packages for international employees that are critical to the future of work. This is according to Mercer’s 24th annual Cost of Living Survey which reveals that factors such as instability of housing markets and fluctuating inflation, currencies and prices for goods and services, are impacting the cost of doing business in various cities around the world. UK cities have significantly risen in the ranking this year. (more…)

Three quarters of employees now expect to work beyond age of 65

Three quarters of employees now expect to work beyond age of 65

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

The proportion of UK employees who say they will work beyond the age of 65 has remained at three-quarters (72 percent) for the second year running, significantly higher than in 2016 (67 percent) and 2015 (61 percent), according to research from Canada Life. Nearly half (47 percent) of those who say they expect to work beyond 65 will be older than 70 before they retire, up from 37 percent in 2017, while almost a fifth (17 percent) expect to be older than 75. Workers aged 35-44 are most likely to say they expect to retire after their 75th birthday (27 percent).

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We should not be quite so quick to demonise the open plan office

We should not be quite so quick to demonise the open plan office

by • Facilities management, Features, Furniture, Workplace design

There is a witch hunt on in the workplace. “Open plan” has become a dirty word and the national press are leading the mob in vilifying this so-called scourge. The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and Business Week have all reported that “we can’t get anything done in an open-plan office” as it affects our concentration, our performance and our health. These news items are all damning, but perhaps not as damming as the Wikipedia entry on open plan which states: “A systematic survey of research upon the effects of open plan offices found frequent negative effects in some traditional workplaces: high levels of noise, stress, conflict, high blood pressure and a high staff turnover… Most people prefer closed offices… there is a dearth of studies confirming positive impacts on productivity from open plan office designs”.

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Improving employment of older people could boost UK GDP by £180bn 

Improving employment of older people could boost UK GDP by £180bn 

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

GDP could be boosted by around £180 billion a year if the UK could match New Zealand’s employment rates for the over-55s. While employment of older workers has improved in the UK in recent years, it still ranks only 21st out of 35 OECD countries according to new analysis from PwC. The consultancy’s Golden Age Index is a weighted average of indicators – including employment, earnings and training – that reflect the labour market impact of workers aged over 55. Iceland tops the rankings followed by New Zealand and Israel. For the OECD as a whole, there is a potential $3.5 trillion economic prize from matching New Zealand’s employment rates for the over-55s.

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