Monday, 13th March: Whilst Lloyds are planning to relocate around 1,900 employees over to IBM, most of which would apparently lose their jobs after four years, Vodafone have announced they will create 2,100 new customer service jobs in the UK in a bid to improve their operations in their home market, which they made a delayed entrance into when compared to rivals. One additional recruitment programme they are carrying out is aimed at women who have been on ‘career breaks’ and struggling to make their way back into employment with the professional connections required. This particular programme is targeted to recruit around 1,000 women globally within three years, around 500 of which will hold management positions.
Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 started the day off positively at +0.38%, largely due to the same sector which was conversely causing bother at the beginning of last week… the miners. After earning the position as the sector at the bottom of the FTSE350, this week, mining starts the day second from the top at +3.02%, however, the industrial metals sector remained clinging to the very bottom at -2.67%. Anglo American, which was down -1.5% last week, has started this week up +3.8%, demonstrating a smooth recovery. Due to the volatility of the sector, particularly in the current economic conditions, it isn’t certain how long this will last.
Another bit of news following up last weeks’ affairs which has also taken a turn in the opposite direction is the drop in Standard Life and Aberdeen’s shares, as last week the pair experienced gains of +5.68% and 4.16% respectively. However, after broker Berenberg’s downgrade of Standard Life from a buy to a hold, the share price followed and declined -1.2% to 375p, which is slightly concerning compared to last week’s peak of 413p. Aberdeen also suffered and was down -0.74% at 282p.