Hard Interview Questions

I found this list of hard interview questions and suggested answers using StumbleUpon...it may be worth a look.

It is a list of what the author describes as "The 25 most difficult questions you'll be asked on a job interview." Personally I don't think these are the hardest interview questions ever...here are a few of our own tough interview questions.

Then again...I think it might be from 1983 so perhaps it is a little dated. Nevertheless here is the link.

http://www.datsi.fi.upm.es/~frosal/docs/25mdq.html

Enjoy

Tough first day for Prime Minister Cameron as unemployment continues to rise

According to the latest figures released by the Office of National Statistics the rate of unemployment reached 8.0% in the three months to March whilst the rate of employment fell to 72.0% in the same period.

In contrast the number of people claiming unemployment benefit actually fell in the April, representing the fifth fall in six months. The claimant count fell by 27,100 to 1.52 million. This shows that people are unable or choosing not to claim benefits.

In addition the inactivity rate continued to rise, driven in part by people staying in education.

The employment rate for the three months to March 2010 was 72.0 per cent. The rate was down 0.3 per cent on the quarter and it has not been lower since the three months to September 1996. The number of people in employment fell by 76,000 on the quarter to reach 28.83 million. The number of full-time workers fell by 103,000 over the quarter but the number of part-time workers increased by 27,000. The number of employees and self-employed people working part-time because they could not find a full-time job increased by 25,000 on the quarter to reach 1.07 million, the highest figure since comparable records began in 1992.

The unemployment rate for the three months to March 2010 was 8.0 per cent, up 0.2 per cent on the quarter. The number of unemployed people increased by 53,000 over the quarter to reach 2.51 million, the highest figure since the three months to December 1994. The number of people unemployed for up to six months fell by 52,000, to reach 1.21 million. However, the number of people unemployed for more than twelve months increased by 94,000 over the quarter to reach 757,000, the highest figure since the three months to May 1997.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (the claimant count) decreased by 27,100 between March and April 2010 to reach 1.52 million. The claimant count has fallen for five out of the last six months. The number of claimants of up to six months duration fell by 29,200 on the month to reach 923,800 while the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance for over twelve months increased by 10,700 between March and April to reach 253,000.

The inactivity rate for the three months to March 2010 was 21.5 per cent, up 0.2 per cent on the quarter. The number of inactive people of working age increased by 88,000 over the quarter to reach a record high of 8.17 million. Almost half of this quarterly increase in inactivity was due to the number of students not in the labour market which increased by 43,000 on the quarter to reach 2.30 million.

The number of vacancies for the three months to April 2010 was 475,000, down 6,000 over the quarter.

The earnings annual growth rate for total pay (including bonuses) was 4.0 per cent for the three months to March 2010. This is the highest growth rate since June 2008 and is up from 2.5 per cent for the three months to February 2010. This increase in the growth rate for total pay reflects higher bonuses across most sectors of the economy compared with last year. The earnings annual growth rate for regular pay (excluding bonuses) was 1.9 per cent for the three months to March 2010, up from 1.7 per cent for the three months to February 2010.

For further details follow this link to the monthly bulletin.

The statistics also showed that the public sector continued to take on people over the past twelve months. This is unlikely to continue following the General Election outcome.

RBS to cut 2,600 more jobs

The government controlled Royal Bank of Scotland is planning on cutting a further 2,600 jobs.

Political uncertainty will damage the labour market

The problems in Greece and the continued political uncertainty will only add to the likelihood that the labour market will remain weak for some time yet.

It is clear that public sector jobs will be lost as the deficit is cut but these uncertainties in the UK and abroad will likely result in employers holding back taking on new staff until they get some clarity.

Election debate and the level of cuts that will have to be made!

The final election debate was supposed to focus upon the economy, but frankly the lack of detail from all three candidates was astonishing.  We learnt very little new about their policies and I'm not sure anyone really believes that cuts won't be larger than we are being told, whoever gets into government.

This was a great opportunity to debate the merits of a Brown type Keynesian policy of continuing government spending verses the Conservative classical economics position of cutting the deficit, shrinking government and balancing the books.  Both positions have merit and should have been examined.  They were hinted at but no great detail was given.

It is easy to understand why politicians avoid announcing these tough and technical positions to the public.  George Osbourne went down the path of announcing austerity and the polls moved sharply against him.  It seems perhaps we are happier to be misled than to hear the truth.

Make no mistake, whoever gets elected next Thursday, spending will be cut sharply and taxes will rise.  Even with the economy coming out of recession, things may to many feel a lot worse.