wefinda weekly UK business news - week ended 9 July 2010

As expected the Bank of England MPC kept interest rates at 0.5% last week and also left the asset purchase programme unchanged at £200 billion.  The minutes of the meeting where we see how the members voted will be released on 21 July.  Last month seven members voted in favour of keeping rates unchanged whilst one voted against. 

The University terms have ended and the annual flood of graduates has hit the market.  With the recession fall out still affecting confidence, employers have 7% less places for graduates this year (report by the Association of Graduates Recruiters).   Whilst 70 graduates are chasing each job, up from 39 per job in 2008, many employers are insisting on at least a 2.1 degree.  Smaller businesses could therefore win out with many qualified graduates turning to the SME market for their first job.

For those of you involved in manufacturing, you only have until the 31 July to enter the EEF Future Manufacturing Awards.  There are four categories (Enterprise, Innovation, Environmental and Apprentices) and the awards are open to all UK manufacturers and their apprentices.  There is no charge for entry.  Click on the link for further information and to download the entry form.  http://www.eef.org.uk/awards/default.htm

So what do we have to look forward to in the coming week?  The EU seems to be concentrating on people with special needs with a conference on access to technology by people with disabilities in London on 13th and a conference on ICT for people with disabilities in Vienna from 14th to 16th.  The Vienna conference includes a demonstration on RoboBraille which converts text into digital or audio files, thus helping the visually impaired and dyslexic in the workplace and at home.

As far as SMEs are concerned there is a quiet week in the House of Commons.  The finance bill continues its progress in the main chamber whilst one of the committees is looking at Occupational Pension Schemes.

Finally, if one of your employees has started to look tired and perform badly they could be suffering from the latest disease to have hit the survey market.  According to Axa, money sickness syndrome is on the rise.  It is caused by poor financial understanding and a lack of control over personal finances.  Apparently senior managers mainly try to ignore the problem whilst skilled manual workers and administrative staff either turn to drink or eat more.  

If you think that your staff may have this syndrome, a talk by a financial adviser or debt counsellor could be the answer.  However, if you decide more drastic measurers are called for to restore employee togetherness, think carefully before doing what one Italian company did and get your staff to walk over a bed of hot coals.  The wrong wood was used and nine people ended up in hospital.