The Government is cracking down on employers with large penalties if they are caught hiring illegal migrant workers. Employers can face up to 2 years in prison or an unlimited fine for every employee found to be working. This is being backed by a large advertising campaign.
The streets where Billy Elliot was seen skipping through a mining community in the North of England is the unlikely location of a new £300 million film studio complex. The closure of the pits in Durham during the early 1990’s literally put half the male work (25,000 jobs were directly and indirectly affected) force on the dole and in turn ripped apart a local economy. The proposal from Pinewood studios is set to provide local people with the change of retraining and employment in a raft of new jobs, from initial the construction to being a film extra!
Bulgaria is a current favourite for film location and Durham is going to have to work hard to win the contracts necessary but they have good infrastructure high quality locations and a very willing workforce in their favour.
The development will be based on what is currently open farmland comprising of 200 acres. The surrounding area has already seen a heavy investment from public and private sector spending with nearly half a billion pounds already being pumped into business parks, roads, retail space and housing developments.
Fingers crossed the development gets the go head as thousands of jobs will be created with a major knock on effect to the area with supporting services.
Loughall’s Hewitt Meats, a meat plant in Armagh is to create 28 new jobs through a new product range.
The firm was founded in 1974 and it currently employs 32 people and exports about 50% of its product outside NI. So this new range and expansion of the company will nearly double the workforce.
The construction giant Balfour Beatty announced today that it expects to beat targets for its 2007 profits despite the downfall of Metronet. It seems that the construction and engineering firm will buck the state of panic currently beginning to surface across industry in the face of the credit crunch.
Rolls-Royce will cut some 2,300 jobs to reduce costs and improve efficiency across the engineering company.
A spokesperson for the group said that its cuts will extend across the UK, US, Germany and the Nordic region. Although it is not understood quite how many jobs will go in the UK, it is thought that the cuts will affect all types of managerial, professional and clerical staff. On a positive note the company has promised that they will continue to recruit for graduate programmes and apprenticeships as well as hiring staff that will bring direct growth to the organisation.
