In the three months to February, the United Kingdom's unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent, up 1.5 percent over the year, its highest level since 1997. The number of jobless people rose to 2.10 million, according to official data.
Auto-maker Volvo Group has announced that, amid difficulties in the sector, it plans to cut some 1,543 more jobs in Sweden. The company plans to have reduced its workforce by a total 16,255 jobs during 2008 and 2009.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has warned that hundreds of workers at the Continental tyre company who trashed a government building on Tuesday to protest planned layoffs should face charges, calling their acts "unacceptable".
Internet giant Yahoo has reported a drop of 78 percent in the first three months of the year. The group has decided to cut around 600 more jobs, representing almost five percent of its worldwide workforce.
The embattled US automaker General Motors has announced plans to cut a further 1,600 white-collar jobs over the next ten days as it races to meet a June 1 deadline to present an agressive restructuring plan before federal authorities.
After industrial output dropped off in France in early 2009, the Paris-based French Economic Observatory (OFCE) forecast that the country's economy would shrink by 2.3 percent this year and that unemployment would top 10 percent in 2010.
As the US economy struggles to crawl out of recession, data released on Thursday showed an unexpected drop in fresh claims for unemployment benefits earlier this month.
British media reported on Sunday that British Telecom will cut another 10,000 jobs in coming months to reduce costs. BT calls the number "speculative". Preliminary results out next month are likely to be among BT's worst since its 1984 privatisation.
Fears of "bossnapping" in a Fiat dealership in Brussels proved unfounded on Thursday. Three managers had shut themselves in an office for several hours to avoid negotiating with employees over their job cuts. They left unhindered.
The Royal Bank of Scotland, saved from bankruptcy after the British government partially nationalised it, announced it would cut around 9,000 jobs in the world, half of them in Britain. The bank hopes to save 2.8 billion euros with the plan.
