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Olympic tickets: What would you pay? What would people who live near the London Olympics site pay for tickets? bbc.co.uk |
Demand for short-term workers sees US employment firm Manpower beat profits forecasts Company reports £32.3m profits as it benefits from economic uncertainty across the globeManpower, the employment agency, reported quarterly profits far ahead of Wall Street estimates today as it benefited from economic uncertainty in America, Britain, Germany and other economies.Employers, reluctant to commit to full-time hiring before seeing concrete signs that a recovery had taken root, are relying more on temps, flexibly employing people as needed, often for short contracts."We've never had a spot like this as an industry, or when we do it's short-lived, three to five months, and then you're into a full-on recovery," said chief executive Jeff Joerres, adding that the company was able to meet demand quickly because it did not aggressively close offices during the recession.Manpower reported a profit of $51.3m (£32.3m), or 62c per share, compared with a loss for the same period last year of $52.8m. Analysts had expected a profit of 47c per share. The results boosted shares of the global employment services company by 4.4% to their best level since May and helped stocks of other staffing companies. Revenue rose 19% to $4.97bn, compared with Wall Street forecasts of $4.8bn.T C Robillard, an analyst at Wall Street firm Signal Hill Capital, said: "If we're in this prolonged, subdued growth, it really is a sweet spot for temps. Any company that's not confident enough to hire permanently is going to continue to leverage the temporary labour force. If growth kicks in, they're going to participate in that."US unemployment and employment dataUnemployment and employment statisticsEconomicsUnited StatesUS economyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
At Least 13 Dead in Mexican Shooting Gunmen stormed two homes and massacred 13 young people at a birthday party in the latest large-scale attack in this violent border city, even as a new government strategy seeks to restore order with social programs and massive police deployments. online.wsj.com |
Obama calls for 2-year freeze on federal pay WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Monday proposed a two-year freeze of the salaries of some 2 million federal workers, trying to seize the deficit-cutting initiative from Republicans with a sudden, dramatic stroke. Though signaling White House concern over record deficits, the freeze would make only a tiny dent in annual deficits or the nation's $14 trillion debt.... hosted.ap.org |