The supermarket giant announced plans to recruit 30-50 new staff at each of its 244 nationwide outlets. A survey by the Confederation of British Industry and Business Strategies has shown a sharp decline in manufactures' confidence due to the worldwide slowdown and the squeeze on their margins. There are fears that a further 17,000 manufacturing jobs could be lost over the coming months. BDO Stoy Hayward shows that the government will be going into the General Election campaign with one of the strongest world economies. 470 redundancies at Pace Micro Technology Production of set top boxes for digital television is to be discontinued at the company's plant in Shipley, Yorkshire.
Manufacture is to be moved overseas, perhaps to Ireland or the Czech Republic.
The two banks will operate under a new holding company, HBOS plc, but will continue trading under their present brand names. More than 2,000 redundancies are expected over the next three years, but compulsory redundancies are expected to be few. Whitbread to create 4,000 new jobs in the UK Whitbread are intending to open a further 80 Brewers Fayre and Brewsters pub restaurants by the end of 2004 together with 10 new David Lloyd leisure clubs by the end of 2002. It is thought that some 3,000 full and part-time staff will be required for the pub restaurants and about 1,000 for the health clubs. These will be among researchers and traders dealing in emerging markets such as Eastern Europe.