.gif){kind=small}
BACK TO HOME
PAGE BACK TO HOME
PAGE EUROPEAN REVIEW
Company restructuring continued apace in the third quarter of 2005 but not quite as fast as earlier in the year. A report published by the European Monitoring Centre for Change (EMCC) shows that just over 102,000 jobs were cut as a result of restructuring between July and September last year whereas more than 99,000 were created. This is a reduction of 28% and 15% respectively.
The overwhelming majority of new start-ups occurred in eastern Europe with Poland and Slovakia, of the new members, benefitting most with the candidate countries Romania and Bulgaria. The United Kingdom's economy again showed great turbulence coming in second in the league of both gains and losses of employment with a rough balance between them. In Germany nearly four times as many jobs were cut compared to those created indicating that the country's changing economy still has a way to go before workers reap the benefit. From individual company case studies the report picks out Hewlett Packard which recently announced 4,500 redundancies from its European division and IKEA which continues to expand rapidly, particularly in eastern Europe, having added about 4,000 posts over recent years with another 5,000 planned. Comparing sectors of the economy EMCC finds that transport and electricity supply lost the most jobs due to restructuring while wholesale/retail and manufacturing were the chief beneficiaries in the period.
For its Annual Economic Review in 2005 the European Commission considered the effects of globalisation on the EU economy. Overall it estimates that one fifth of the increase in real income over the last fifty years has been due to the ongoing incorporation of Europe into the World economic system. Even before enlargement the economic bloc represented by the EU 15 was the largest in world trade terms, accounting for 16% as opposed to 10% for the USA. The EU Members tended to invest more in each other rather than in other parts of the World and the comparatively small foreign investment in countries like China would suggest, according to the report, that that country's strength will remain in the low-cost labour-intensive sectors of industry for the foreseeable future. While this may have bad effects in certain countries and regions that rely on traditional industries the review recommends retraining and worker mobility to maintain EU excellence in medium to highly skilled sectors like cars and pharmaceuticals while improving its performance in high technology such as information and communication technology (ICT).
|
Back to |
Up to |
