Job creation and losses

A pilot project in Glasgow aims to get residents off incapacity benefit by searching the streets for people who could be at work and encouraging them to look for jobs.

More than 3.3 million jobs have been created in service firms since Labour came to power in 1997, research has claimed.

Budget hotel group Travelodge has appointed the world’s first director of sleep for £60,000, despite the threat of job cuts in middle management

Employment in the public sector rose by 72,000 from January to September 2005, compared with an increase of 115,000 the previous year. The largest increases were in health and social work (45,000) and the education sector (25,000)

Royal Mail is reportedly planning to begin a fresh round of cost-cutting that unions fear may trigger 40,000 job losses and a major switch from full-time to part-time work

Rentokil Initial is closing its workwear and linen operations at Initial Hygiene UK with the loss of up to 1,700 jobs.

Global car giant DaimlerChrysler is to cut 6,000 jobs in a bid to cut costs.

HR staff at electrical chains Dixons and Currys could face the axe after its owner DSG said it is to cut office jobs as part of a £20m savings drive

2012 Olympics forum set up to give business and unions chance to get involved.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union working at the NHS Pensions Agency have voted to strike over plans to privatise the agency.

Software giant Oracle plans to increase its headcount in India to 10,000 this year by employing a further 1,400 staff in 15 cities.

About 850 jobs at Golden Wonder could be cut after the crisp manufacturer was forced into administration.

The union representing 1,600 workers who have lost their jobs with supermarket chain Morrisons says the cuts are a "direct consequence" of the company's takeover of Safeway.

2006 could be the worst year for productivity growth since 1990, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)

Efforts to recruit more NHS doctors and nurses in Scotland are likely to fail due to financial cutbacks, according to Scotland's spending watchdog