General Business News (Incl Video)



Barclays says it will cut 2,100 jobs from its UK banking business, in addition to the same number of jobs it cut on Tuesday.

Merrill Lynch will make one of the biggest single staff reductions in the history of London’s Square Mile as it prepares to cut 1,900 jobs in the capital. The company and its new owner Bank of America is set to slash 30 per cent of the combined workforce in London due to the merger and the global economic downturn.

The Deutsche Bank issued a surprise profits warning Wednesday, saying that it has turned in a loss of around 4.8 billion euros ($6.38 billion) in the final three months of 2008 alone.

Jaguar Land Rover has announced it is cutting 450 staff. Three hundred managers will be made redundant while 150 salaried agency staff will also lose their jobs.

The administrators of music, games and DVD chain Zavvi have announced it is closing a further 18 stores with the loss of 353 jobs.

International pharmaceutical firm Pfizer is to cut up to 240 jobs from its UK workforce, the company has announced.

UK-based Newcastle Building Society has announced that it is set to make up to 150 redundancies as a result of continued unprecedented market conditions.

Retailer JJB Sports has said it may be heading for a full-year loss of up to £10m after seeing sales fall in "extremely difficult" trading.

Close Brothers say that investors and banks exposed to UK commercial property face massive losses and debt refinancing bills over the next four years, warning this may cause a second credit crunch.

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey has warned of further job cuts after revealing a slump in sales. The firm axed 1,900 workers last year and with little sign of an end to the home loan crisis, bosses are braced for more pain.