Host Of New Job Cuts Sparks Terrible Day For UK Employment

Terrible news for the British job sector as another 5,000 jobs were lost in one of the worst days seen since the crisis started. Companies in all sectors were hit with losses ranging from Virgin Media to Glaxo-SmithKline to the housing sector.

This devastating news arrives only a day before a new unemployment report. It was already expected to show staggering losses as the unemployment figures for Britain near two million. Economists are again warning that unemployment could hit three million next year. This would be the highest rate since the recessions in the 1990s.

Virgin Media will cut 2,200 jobs. Sir Richard Branson's company hopes to cut yearly costs by £120 million. This redundancy announcement is one of the largest made by any one employer during the crisis. This major company was formed through the 2006 merger of Virgin Mobile and NTL Telewest. The redundancies will be spread throughout all the operations and will take full effect in 2012 after heavy cuts in 2009 and 2010. The rumors are that the headquarters in Hampshire will be hit the hardest.

Glaxo is planning to close its Dartford factory in 2013. This will cut 620 jobs. It is expected to have a devastating effect on the town where Glaxo is the major employer. The decision comes as a part of a review by Andrew Witty, the company's new chief executive. A falling demand for the factory's drugs was cited as the reason.

Yell plans to have another round of job cuts too. 1,300 positions will be cut. This amounts to roughly 10% of the company's workforce. The losses will hit their operations in both the US and the UK. Similar cuts were already made last year as the company renegotiated a £3.8 billion debt. John Condron, CEO, stated that this is just another step to cut costs and ride out the recession. Taylor Wimpey announced cuts too. This takes the total to 1,900 positions cut this year, or roughly 33% of their UK housing workforce. The housing slump has hit them hard. They've already cut 1,000 staff positions since July to accompany the 900 cut at the beginning of the year. They hope that the recent interest rate cuts will help the housing market, but they have little hope for a quick recovery. Lehman Brothers' collapse in September threw the entire financial market into a serious slump. Sales in the second half of this year are already down 27%.

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