Stormy Weather

The UK has been battered by uncomfortable and volatile conditions and fears over damage to property this week - and the weather has been awful as well.

When it rains, it pours, and this is as true for the macroeconomy as anything else.

The UK labour market is beginning to show worrying signs, with a report that nine out of ten employers have no plans to recruit new staff.

Blaming concerns over the state of the economy, recruitment group Manpower said confidence had fallen across most regions and economic sectors. Manpower said the situation was worst in finance and business services firms.

It found that just 9% of all companies questioned said they expected to take on extra staff, while 3% planned to make redundancies.

“Concerns about the strength and performance of the UK economy, coupled with recent worries about the stock market and consumer confidence, are having an impact - in particular in the finance and business services sector.”

This is not good news for Alistair Darling, who announces his debut Budget as Chancellor tomorrow. He faces pressure on both government spending and tax revenues, constrained by both the downward fiscal drag effects of economic slowdown and the fiscal rules created by his predecessor (and now Prime Minister) Gordon Brown.

The BBC has a useful page of graphics on what it terms the ‘Chancellor’s Dilemma’ and Evan Davis has his say on the key economic issues facing the present government.

Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Evaluation on Supply-Side Policies [21 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Migration and the UK Economy [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Positive and Negative Multiplier Effects [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Importance of Productivity [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Measuring Unemployment in the UK [20 May 2012]
Q&A: What do we need to know about output gaps? [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Output Gap [20 May 2012]
Revision notes on unemployment [20 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of a Minimum Wage [12 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Poverty and Inequality and Market Failure [12 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Notes on Supply-side Policies [10 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Model answer for revision data question [9 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Monetary Policy and Inflation Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Trade and Balance of Payments Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Unemployment Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Cycle Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Aggregate Demand Glossary [5 May 2012]
Macro Revision - Key Statistics on the UK Economy [4 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Using the Cost-Benefit Principle [30 Apr 2012]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [29 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: The Euro Zone Crisis (Revision) [22 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Adecco and Monopsony Power [22 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Better news on jobs in the UK? [19 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Skills Shortages Hold Back Recovery [12 Apr 2012]
Superb article on unemployment [8 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Pain in Spain as Fiscal Austerity Bites [1 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Capital Investment [30 Mar 2012]
Intergenerational Equity - Fairness and the Slump [28 Mar 2012]
Blanchflower calls for more action to address youth jobless crisis [28 Mar 2012]
Life in the Slow Lane - UK Growth in 2011 Lags the Euro Area [28 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Evaluating 3 Years of Quantitative Easing [27 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Seasonal and Structural Unemployment [15 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Policies to Drive Economic Recovery [9 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro - Labour Migration and the Economy [5 Mar 2012]
Economies hooked on central bank stimulants? [4 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: King on the UK Economy [15 Feb 2012]
Economics Explained, by Evan [12 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: China’s Trade Engine is Spluttering [10 Feb 2012]
Martin Wolf on Global Shocks [10 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Growth and Development - Some Indicators [30 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Changing Economic Structure [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Money, Debt and the New World Order [22 Jan 2012]
France and Flexible Employment [22 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Living below the Breadline [19 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Factors Driving Business Investment [10 Jan 2012]
Hopes and Fears 2012 [10 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: A Jobs Boost for the US Economy [8 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Quiz on Economics of Unemployment [5 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Video Resources on Unemployment [3 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Housing Market in 2011 [26 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Brazil Overtakes UK in Economic Size [26 Dec 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: The Rise in Self Employment [17 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Long Term Unemployment - A Human Story [15 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Will a Youth Jobs Subsidy Work? [30 Nov 2011]
Where is the UK Economy? National Output [22 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: A Prezi on Unemployment Policies [16 Nov 2011]
AS Macro: The State of British Business [13 Nov 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: America’s hour-glass economy [9 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Video Clips on Unemployment [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Unemployment Chart Resource Download [29 Oct 2011]
UK Unemployment in October 2011 [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: UK suffers a weak recovery [12 Oct 2011]
Why Is Macroeconomics Such A Mess? [11 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Homework Assignment on Consumer Spending [3 Oct 2011]
NMW: Classical real-wage unemployment [3 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Greek Economy at Default’s Door [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: IMF Flags up Risks of Double Dip [20 Sep 2011]
Study Note - Macroeconomic policy objectives [16 Sep 2011]
Study Note - What is Macroeconomics? [13 Sep 2011]
UK Macro: Risks of a Double Dip Recession [12 Sep 2011]
“We need to make more stuff, using the same number of people…” [16 Jul 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Dangers of High Inflation [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Reducing Unemployment after a Recession [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: High price of petrol drains demand [9 Jul 2011]
AQA ECON4 Context [20 Jun 2011]
Structural unemployment in the UK - insights for 2011 [13 Jun 2011]
A2 Macro: Consumer Spending [30 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Supply-Side Policies [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Demand Pull Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Deflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Economic Recovery [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Recession [23 May 2011]
AS Micro: What´s really behind the oil price rise? [10 May 2011]
Interest Rates Held at 0.5% once again [5 May 2011]
Macroeconomics revision - measuring Consumer Confidence [4 May 2011]
EU Enlargement - Evaluating the Impact [30 Apr 2011]
AS and A2 Macro Revision: Keynesian Economics [28 Apr 2011]
Australia Booming Ahead [21 Apr 2011]
Rise in investment could kick start recovery [18 Apr 2011]
OCR F585 June 2011: A Brain Drain from Spain? [13 Apr 2011]
In Praise of Farmers and Farming [13 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Frictional Unemployment [11 Apr 2011]
A2 Macro: Back to Roubini - a Year On! [11 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Seasonal Unemployment [10 Apr 2011]
AS Micro: Prices for New and Second Hand Cars [9 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Double-Dip Recession [8 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Jobless Recovery [8 Apr 2011]
UK Minimum Wage rises by 2.5% in October 2011 [8 Apr 2011]
ECB breaks rank and raises interest rates [7 Apr 2011]

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