France – Government reveals labour market reforms (France24)

French President Emmanuel Macron's government yesterday unveiled plans to make it more difficult for the unemployed to claim benefits, reports France 24. The jobless benefits reforms are part of an overhaul of France's labour market that aims to boost the nation's economy. However, trade unions have...

UK – Interserve Chairman to step down (Sky News)

Sky News reports Interserve chairman Glyn Barker is preparing to step down following a deal that saw the outsourcing firm taken over by a consortium of its lenders. The company, which entered administration in March 2019, is now working with executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles to find a successor....

World – Tech Roundup: Zego, Slatecube

Zego, a London-based startup that offers insurance to gig economy workers such as those in Deliveroo and Uber, has raised $42 million in funding. The funds will be used for Zego’s expansion across Europe and to increase its workforce from 75 to 150. According to TechCrunch, the latest Series B investment...

Europe – European Council adopts new directive for more predictable and transparent work

The Council of the European Union has adopted a regulation establishing a European Labour Authority with the aim of making working conditions across the EU more transparent and predictable.

The new law introduces new minimum rights, as well as new rules on the information to be provided to workers about...

UK – CIOs predict up to 1 in 5 jobs to be replaced by robots within 5 years: Harvey Nash

CIOs in the UK to expect that up to 1 in 5 jobs will be replaced by AI and automation within five years, according to a survey from Harvey Nash and professional service firm KPMG.

It comes as IT departments are being tasked to use AI to improve efficiencies. Harvey Nash also states that this trend is...

UK – Foreign candidates losing interest in financial sector over Brexit concerns (City A.M)

Interest in UK banking jobs from foreign candidates has dropped by 12% since 2015, with Brexit seen as largely to blame for the falling interest, reports City A.M. citing data from jobs site Indeed. Interest in UK financial jobs fell most sharply among candidates from Europe at the end of 2015, however...

Netherlands – 9% of workers want to work more, but 7% would like to work less (DutchNews)

Approximately 9% of workers in the Netherlands would like to work more, while 7% would like to cut their hours, reports DutchNews.nl citing data from Statistics Netherlands. It was found that women who work full time in particular would like to work less. Of those who work 36 hours or more, 14% of women...

UK – Staffline takes £32.6 million hit over minimum wage failure

Staffline, the UK-based staffing and employability organisation provided a trading update today. The company said non-recurring exceptional charges for 2018 totalled to £32.6 million in relation to errors in historic compliance with National Minimum Wage (NMW) regulations.

The company added that it will...

UK – Workers and jobseekers’ confidence in labour market falls, report finds

Confidence in the UK labour market among workers and jobseekers fell from 77% to 67%, according to a report from jobs site Monster and the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

The report, ‘Monster Jobs Confidence Index’, defines worker and jobseeker confidence as how an individual feels about...

Europe – Job vacancy rate rises in euro area and EU 28 in Q1

The job vacancy rate in the euro area (EA19) stood at 2.3% in the first quarter of 2019, up from 2.1% in the first quarter of 2018. At the same time, in the EU28, the job vacancy rate was 2.4%, up from 2.2% in the first quarter of 2018, according to data published by Eurostat, the statistical office...