ONS shows rise in employment
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) latest official labour market statistics, show that there’s been a further rise in the amount of people in employment (up 152,000 in the three months to February).

They also show fewer redundancies and increased job vacancies, as well as a fall in unemployment (down 39,000 in the same quarter).

Dr John Philpott, of CIPD, said of these latest official figures “Even allowing for lags between output, jobs and unemployment the UK labour market is still behaving as though the economy were chugging along very nicely rather than on the verge of a significant slowdown. This could bode well for the resilience of employment in the coming months – especially with pay pressures sufficiently subdued not to deter further cuts in interest rates – which would greatly protect the UK economy from the possibility of a period of outright recession.

"If so we could be in for a repeat of what happened during the last economic slowdown in 2005 when employer concerns about talent shortages led to ‘labour hoarding.’ Employment levels generally held up, with employers cutting hours worked by staff and curbing average pay rises rather than resorting to layoffs. Today’s ONS figures showing a substantial reduction in average hours worked by full-time staff would support this possibility as would signs of continued pay restraint."

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Report shows flexible working improves output
A new report by The Cranfield School of Management and Working Families seems to show that flexible working has a positive effect on levels of stress as well as working performance.

Out of over three and a half thousand workers surveyed, 61% of employees agreed that the effect of flexible working on quantity of output is positive - 45% of managers said the same. 65% of employees believe that the quality of output improves as well, with 46% of managers agreeing.