If you feel any insecurity in your job you are not going to go out and buy a house

The government’s hastily unveiled plan to reduce the number of home repossessions was dismissed by leading UK house builder Bellway. Finance director Alistair Leitch said it would have “absolutely zero effect on new housing. It will not entice Joe Public to buy a new property.” Leitch identified concerns about unemployment as the major factor in slumping house sales. “If you feel any insecurity in your job you are not going to go out and buy a house.”His impression was confirmed by a new survey of job trends, which showed that the UK job market is weakening rapidly.
“The UK jobs market is heading downhill at breakneck speed,” said Mike Stevens at KPMG. “Employers in almost all sectors have drastically cut recruitment plans and are shedding contract and temporary staff as fast as they can.”The contraction of the job market is reflected in record falls in pay levels for both permanent and temporary staff.In the latest round of job losses in the finance sector, Nomura has cut 1,000 jobs in London after it acquired the European branch of Lehman Brothers. Up to 800 jobs are under threat after Honda decided to withdraw from Formula One racing. The job losses cover all sectors of the economy. Some 3,000 jobs are threatened in the tax service.The same pressures on jobs and credit are reflected in new car sales, which fell by 37 percent last month, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. At the top end of the market, Aston Martin’s sales fell by 73 percent. But the high volume brands were also hit by falling sales.“The scale of the downturn in the UK manufacturing PMI [Purchasing Managers Index] data during November is unprecedented,” said Rob Dobson, an economist who has just carried out a survey of manufacturing industry in Britain. The decline in manufacturing has reached “absolutely horrific levels,” he said.“We are already seeing a pretty rapid pace of contraction in hard manufacturing activity in the UK,” said Alan Clarke at BNP Paribas, “and it is going to get even worse.”

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