Are you ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
The biggest pre-Christmas shopping weekend will take place at the end of this month. Black Friday is on 27 November and Cyber Monday takes place on the 30th. What started in the United States, has now become big news for UK retailers with shoppers snapping up bargains online in increasing numbers. EBay expects nine million Britons to visit its website on Black Friday. And Retail Week has reported that sales are likely to break the £2 billion barrier over the entire weekend.
Demand for staff continues to rise
Demand for both permanent and temporary staff grew again in October, according to data from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. Its Report on Jobs found that vacancies continued to rise in October and salaries continued to go up. The availability of staff to fill permanent job roles fell further, although easing to its slowest rate since January. Suzie McCafferty, md of Select Appointments, said: "Wages are being driven up as competition increases."
Economy must shift from start-ups to scale-ups says IoD
Britain slipped from fourth place to ninth in the latest Global Entrepreneurship Index. Describing the news as "disappointing", Jimmy McLoughlin, deputy head of policy at the Institute of Directors said: "We should not forget the significant progress which has been made in recent years … more and more young people are starting up their own businesses and Britain leads the world when it comes to the strength of our internet economy. The key will be transforming Britain from a start-up economy to a scale-up economy."
Lack of digital know-how costing UK start-ups
A lack of digital skills is a key cause of start-up failures, according to a new survey of entrepreneurs. The Unleashing Entrepreneurs Online Study by Rakuten has found that many online businesses start up without sufficient digital know-how. And 90% of the respondents said the Government should do more to support online entrepreneurs. Henry Lane Fox, ceo of Founders Forum Group and co-founder of Smartup.io, said: "I've seen first-hand how online businesses can take off and be successful and one thing I've learned is how important digital skills are."