THE HOT STORY

Labour's cash boost for youth jobs

Companies are to be paid grants to hire more young people under new government proposals to tackle youth unemployment. Ministers want to create 200,000 jobs and are pledging £1bn in funding for several initiatives. Businesses will receive £3,000 for every person between the ages 18 and 24 that they employ who has been searching for a job for six months or more, while small and medium firms will be paid £2,000 for every new apprentice they take on. Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden is set to announce the Youth Jobs Grant today. Some 60,000 people are expected to be supported by the proposals. McFadden said the new measures would giving "life-changing opportunities to young people" that will "significantly reverse the increase we inherited in those not in education, employment or training." He added: "We are focusing funding where it's needed most and giving employers the flexibility and support they've asked for."

Financial Times

BBC News

City AM

The Guardian

The Sun

TECHNOLOGY

AI is making workloads more intense

AI is increasing the speed, density and complexity of work rather than reducing it, according to an analysis of 164,000 workers’ digital work activity by workforce analytics and productivity-tracking software company ActivTrak. The data covers more than 443 million hours of work across 1,111 employers, making it one of the biggest studies of AI’s effects on work habits to date, the Wall Street Journal reports. “It’s not that AI doesn’t create efficiency,” observed Gabriela Mauch, ActivTrak’s chief customer officer. “It’s that the capacity it frees up immediately gets repurposed into doing other work, and that’s where the creep is likely to happen.”

Wall Street Journal

WORKFORCE

Steep rise in young Britons citing ill health for joblessness

The number of jobless young people in the UK citing health problems as the reason they are not working has risen sharply, according to the Health Foundation. The share of 16- to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training (Neets) who reported a work-limiting condition has surged by 70% in a decade. More than two-thirds blamed mental health problems and autism for stopping them from working.

The Guardian

HIRING

FE teacher pay gap with schools hits 15-year high

Colleges in England are struggling to recruit teachers amid a significant pay gap with secondary schools. According to the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), further education teachers earn 20% less than their school counterparts. FE teachers now earn nearly £10,500 less than school teachers – the widest pay gap in at least 15 years. David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “The increasing pay gap between school and FE teachers is totally unacceptable . . . It is also grossly unfair to thousands of college staff who are not being paid what they deserve. It is no wonder that the unions are able to secure wins in ballots for industrial action, with pay below where it should be.”

FE Week

ECONOMY

UK economy stalls as growth hits zero

The Office for National Statistics reported that the UK economy experienced zero growth in January, following a modest 0.1% increase in the previous quarter. Economists had anticipated a 0.2% rise. Liz McKeown, ONS director of economic statistics, noted that the "overall picture remains subdued." Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said growth was "likely to remain elusive," adding: "The UK economy started the year on the back foot and activity is expected to weaken further amid sharply rising energy prices."

BBC News

The Independent

RISK

Companies House glitch exposes 5m to fraud

Companies House has revealed a security flaw that exposed 5m business owners to identity theft. A bug allowed users to alter directors' personal details by simply entering a company number and pressing the back button. Tax expert Dan Neidle highlighted the potential for criminals to exploit this vulnerability, saying: "The information security specialists on our team fear a sophisticated bad actor would have used the exploit very carefully." Companies House has suspended updates to its database while it is investigating the breach.

The Observer

INTERNATIONAL

Stellantis pushes white-collar workers back to the office full-time

Stellantis, the carmaker that is the owner of brands ranging from Jeep to Fiat, is pushing tens of thousands of its white-collar workers in Europe back to the office full-time to boost efficiency. Since the pandemic, workers in France, Italy and Germany were allowed to work as little as ⁠1.5 days per week in the office. The return to office full-time will start in these three countries and "progressively extend to other countries," Stellantis said. The CFE-CGC union, the main union representing the company's workers in France, opposes the plan. "This abrupt reversal . . . undermines 10 years of pioneering policy on agility," CFE-CGC union representative Laurent Oechsel told Reuters. "It ⁠creates a climate of major concern."

Reuters

Bundesbank scraps planned return to its historic headquarters

Germany’s Bundesbank has scrapped plans to move back into its headquarters in Frankfurt, despite spending €168m on stripping asbestos from the historic office block. Germany's central bank said Wednesday it was abandoning a project to renovate the headquarters following intense criticism over costs that could spiral into the billions, and would instead move permanently to a new site. Bundesbank chief Joachim Nagel said an analysis had shown that purchasing a new building made more sense than going ahead with the overhaul. The decision was not easy, he said, observing that "many people - active and former colleagues, residents of the city and the country - have a connection to this building."

Barron's

France 24

Financial Times

HSBC scraps work from home for client-facing staff in Hong Kong

HSBC has announced that customer-facing staff in Hong Kong must return to the office five days a week, effective April 1. An internal memo outlined that managing directors and senior staff with direct reports should be in the office at least four days a week, while other staff must attend at least three days weekly. The memo stated: “To our people managers, you are instrumental in driving good practice and experience . . .We ask you to role model the change with clear guidance.” HSBC, the largest bank in Hong Kong, employs over 20,000 staff and previously asked managing directors to work in the office four days a week to "set the tone from the top."

Business Times SG

South China Morning Post

OTHER

UK regulators demand stricter age checks on social media platforms

UK regulators are demanding that major social media platforms including Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube do more to keep children off their services, warning that companies were not enforcing their own minimum age rules. Ofcom and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said they were increasingly concerned ⁠about algorithmic feeds that expose children to harmful or addictive content. "These online services are household names, but they're failing to put children's safety at the heart of their products," Melanie Dawes, Ofcom's chief executive, said. "That must now change quickly, or Ofcom will act." Ofcom can fine companies up to 10% of their qualifying global revenue; the ICO can issue fines of up to 4% of a company's global annual turnover.

Reuters

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