Human Times

European Edition

10th July 2026

THE HOT STORY

Airbus workers in Spain strike over working conditions

Airbus employees across most of Spain have gone on strike until the end of July. They are protesting over issues including sub-inflation pay rises, tighter attendance monitoring and requirements for office staff to spend more time on site. "If no agreement is reached, delivery schedules will be ⁠seriously affected by the strike and the industrial action taking place during the final four months of the year at all Airbus Spain sites," ⁠said CCOO, ‌Airbus's ⁠largest union in Spain, which has not joined the immediate strike at the aircraft maker but said it would call an indefinite halt from September 7 if its demands were not met.

Reuters

WORKFORCE

Violence on German trains is increasing

The recent trial following the death of train conductor Serkan Calar has highlighted a troubling rise in violence against railway employees in Germany. The Zweibrücken Regional Court sentenced a 24-year-old man to 10 years in prison for Calar's death, which resulted from a violent confrontation during a ticket inspection. Statistics indicate that attacks on railway staff have increased, with eight physical assaults reported daily this year. Leon Walter, a researcher into violence at Bielefeld University, said: "These trends are consistent with what people in the healthcare system, the fire department, and the police are saying: they all report an increase in hostility." He says Deutsche Bahn is now facing increasing difficulties in finding train crew members. "Many are considering whether they should look for another job. Workplace violence is a major factor here. Many of these employees also feel they lack the necessary support on how to handle such situations."

Deutsche Welle (EN)

STRATEGY

KPMG to cut corporate services jobs

KPMG is set to reduce the headcount across its UK group corporate services division by around 10%, with 200 jobs to be cut across a division which includes HR, corporate affairs, marketing, tech, and procurement. A KPMG UK spokesperson said the firm is "looking at the shape of our operating model" after a merger of its UK and Swiss units. Earlier this year, KPMG cut 500 jobs in its audit division, including 440 assistant manager roles in the audit business and 120 roles across the advisory arm.

Bloomberg

City AM

The I

Tesco explores sale of central and eastern European business

UK grocery giant Tesco is exploring a sale of its operations in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in a move that would mark the retailer's exit from mainland Europe and end its three-decade ambition to build a global supermarket business. The company is understood to be working with advisers on its options, although it declined to comment on market speculation. The division operates 561 stores and employs more than 22,000 people, generating £4.5bn of revenue and £115m of adjusted operating profit last year, compared with group revenue of £66.6bn and adjusted operating profit of £3.2bn. Proceeds from a disposal could strengthen Tesco's ability to invest in lower prices, technology and shareholder returns as it focuses on defending its leading position in the UK grocery market.

Financial Times

Reuters

City AM

Amsterdam tech company Mews cuts 15% of jobs

Amsterdam-based hotel software supplier Mews plans to reduce its workforce by 15%, affecting around 170 employees. CEO Matthijs Welle said the hotel sector will increasingly rely on AI systems, prompting Mews to adapt its operations accordingly. The company, which is valued at over €2bn, aims to enhance its AI capabilities to remain competitive. CEO Matthijs Welle noted that the decision to proceed with layoffs could not be postponed, as the industry landscape has changed "irreversibly."

NL Times

RISK

Netherlands hopes ties with China can move past Nexperia dispute

Dutch Trade Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, who was personally blacklisted by Beijing five years ago, has said that the Netherlands and China were cooperating "extremely well" to resolve a dispute involving chipmaker Nexperia, as he sought to reset ties during the first visit by a Dutch trade minister to China since 2018. The Dutch government last year partly took control of the chipmaker amid concerns that key intellectual property could be transferred to China. "We had a ⁠frank discussion, but also forward-looking, because I think both of us wanted to make a clean break with the previous period in which there were a lot of frictions and a lot of problems," Sjoerdsma told Reuters after meeting Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.

NL Times

DutchNews

ECONOMY

IMF warns of sharp slowdown in global economy

Global growth is forecast to decline from 3.5% in 2025 to 3% in 2026 before climbing back to 3.4% in 2027, according to the IMF's latest World Economic Outlook. The IMF identified an increased dependence on AI and renewable energy as two factors that helped offset the negative impact of the US-Iran war on the global economy. “The global economy as a whole has, so far, weathered the shock from the war better than feared,” the organisation's researchers said. “Movements in and repercussions from the main channels of transmission - commodity prices, inflation expectations, and financial conditions - have been relatively limited.”

The Hill

Financial Times

LEGAL

EU takes Hungary to court over food price cap

The European Commission has referred Hungary to the European Court of Justice over its retail price cap on food and drugstore products, arguing the policy unfairly targets mainly foreign-owned retailers and breaches EU rules. The measures, which introduced a 10% cap on retail margins for 30 staple food products in March 2025, have since been extended, expanded and made permanent. The Commission said Hungary's approach incorrectly assumes the difference between purchase and selling prices represents retailers' profits, without accounting for operating costs such as wages, property and taxes. Hungary has previously defended the policy as a tool to combat inflation and has indicated it is prepared to challenge the EU's position.

Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

US bosses say growing number of mental health absences is becoming harder to manage

About two-thirds (67%) of US companies reported an increase in mental health-related leaves of absence and accommodation requests over the past year, according to a survey by employment law specialists Littler Mendelson. Bloomberg reports on how a growing trend of workers using the Family and Medical Leave Act for mental health is prompting a resource strain, as employers hire temporary replacements or redistribute work. The estimated cost of a missed workday is said to be about $340 per day for full-time workers. Jeff Nowak, an employment attorney at Littler, observes: “Leaves have been consistently elevated coming out of Covid. This is a sustained shift, not a temporary disruption.”

Bloomberg

China's gig economy absorbs mass layoffs in other industries

Reuters reports that China's booming gig economy is masking job market pain in other sectors as the property crisis eliminates construction jobs and manufacturers shed workers through automation and cost-cutting. The China New Employment Forms Research Center, a think tank, estimates the number of people without a permanent full-time contract - those in so-called "flexible employment" - has risen to 320 million this year from 280 million in 2025, a number almost as large as the U.S. population and about 44% of China's total labour force. The country's gig economy increasingly hires educated young people and white-collar workers. "The proportion is extremely high," observed Yang Zhan, a cultural anthropology expert at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. "It's no longer limited to rural migrants and has spread to the middle class and university graduates . . . China is upgrading manufacturing, and many industries that used to absorb large numbers of workers are being phased out. ⁠Then there is AI."

Reuters

Women returning to Afghanistan seek rare private sector jobs

More than six million Afghans have been pushed back to their home country from neighbours such as Iran and Pakistan in what the United Nations has called one of the largest population repatriation movements globally. Job opportunities are rare, particularly for women who also face restrictions from Taliban authorities. Projects backed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) offer an economic lifeline for Afghan women who have found work weaving carpets or in other factories. Both agencies are partnering with businesses in what could be a launching pad for finding longer term solutions. "The approach we have here is really . . . going immediately into the logic of a longer-term perspective and going outside of the immediate short-term," said UNDP head Alexander De Croo.

France 24

OECD-wide employment expected to grow this year and next

The OECD's Employment Outlook 2026 reveals that the unemployment rate across member countries stands at 4.9%, and has been at or below 5.0% for more than four years. Total employment reached 670 million in May 2026, marking a 26% increase since 2001, and is expected to grow by 0.3% in 2026 and 0.6% in 2027. Despite this growth, real wages are lagging, with one-third of countries experiencing lower wages than five years ago. “OECD labour markets have been strong and resilient – employment is at record highs and unemployment rates are near historic lows,” OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said. “But workers' purchasing power is not keeping up. The answer is boosting labour productivity with better education policies, adult learning options, job mobility and technology adoption.”

Zawya EN

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