The credit crisis could lead to almost 20,000 job losses in London’s financial-services industry over the next two years, more than were cut in the dot-com crash, the Center for Economic and Business Research Ltd (CEBR) said.
The number of jobs in the industry may drop to 342,000 this year and 334,000 next year, compared with 351,000 last year, CEBR said in a report published yesterday. Employment in London’s financial services may not return to last year’s level until 2012, the report said.
More than 15,000 jobs were lost in the collapse of the dot-com bubble in 2000, the report said.
Corporate finance, investment banking and derivatives will be the most severely affected, CEBR said. The increase in credit costs in the wake of the collapse of the US subprime mortgage market has curbed the pace of takeovers. The value of announced deals has dropped 33 percent this year to US$778 billion from a record last year, Bloomberg data showed.
“The credit crunch has made it more difficult for banks to secure funds and activity in profitable sectors like mergers and acquisitions has ground to a halt,” CEBR economist Richard Snook said. “Substantial job losses are inevitable.”
Citigroup Inc and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc are cutting jobs after writedowns and subprime mortgage-related losses worldwide rose to more than US$245 billion. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, the second-biggest lender in the UK, is eliminating about 200 jobs at its corporate-banking unit because of the credit crisis, people with knowledge of the plan said last week.
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
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