Japanese electronic giant Panasonic announced Friday its first loss in six years, reporting an amount of nearly 3 billion euros. The group announced a huge restructuring plan on February, cutting 15,000 jobs and closing dozens of plants.
The unemployment rate in the United States jumped to 8.9 percent, its highest level since 1983. But the pace of job losses slowed appreciably, in a sign that the country's job market may be improving.
Our special edition of the Week in the Middle East takes you to the United Arab Emirates, where the global economic crisis has crashed down on Dubai’s extravagant building projects and its thousands of fortune-seeking expats.
Nestled in the picturesque hills of Burgundy, La Clayette is your typical small countryside town. But one of the town's main employers has shut down and others may soon follow suit, leaving the two thousand local residents stranded.
Our correspondent travelled to York, a small industrial town in Pennsylvania, hard hit by the economic crisis. The inhabitants say they are satisfied with the work done by their president so far, but they are waiting for results.
According to official government data, a further 63,400 people became unemployed in France in March. This was however a smaller increase than in January and February. France's total number of unemployed now stands at 2.44 million.
French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde has said in an interview that the ranks of France's unemployed grew by between 60,000 and 70,000 in March. The official data are to be revealed later today.
France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy announced an investment of 1.3 billion euros “in employment and training to help more than 50,000 youth,” promising companies “zero expenses” if they hire a trainee.
With an increase of 1.836 million in the last twelve months, the total number of unemployed in Spain has doubled to more than four million people, official data showed Friday. Spain's jobless rate of 17.36 percent is the highest in the EU.
