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Employers who exploit illegal workers will face tougher enforcement action and stronger penalties as part of a plan to reduce illegal trafficking of workers and to ensure the economy “delivers for hard-working people”.

The UK economy is missing out on an average of £1.2 billion due to the employee’s inability to retrain for new skills or switch industries, extensive research carried out by consultancy company PwC has found.

Small and medium businesses across the UK are likely to bolster their investments in physical assets including machinery, premises and stock, as a direct result of a new climate of growth, HSBC’s latest market report has revealed.

The number of family-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) established in the UK is set to grow to 2.65m by 2018, while their revenues will rise from £540bn a year to £661bn in the same time frame, recent research by banking giant Barclays has revealed.

The number of people out of work has reached 2.24 million between December 2013 and February 2014, down 320,000 compared to the previous year, thus giving a new unemployment rate of 6.9 per cent, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have shown.

Providing flexible working options would enable more older women to stay in employment while in the same time allowing them to fulfil their caring commitments for ageing parents, children and grandchildren, a new report drawn up by charities Age UK and Carers UK suggests.

The UK economy is on an a positive trend and the GDP is likely to rise by 3.1% in 2014, a new report drawn up by leading economic forecasters, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), has revealed.

The level of business optimism in the manufacturing sector has recorded its sharpest rise since 1973 as a direct result of growing demand, both at home and abroad, the latest CBI quarterly Industrial Trends Survey has revealed.

Small companies employing under 10 people are driving up UK recruitment, especially at local level, figures from a new research report by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) have revealed.

Almost a third of British employees will be looking for a new job this year, with a bigger pay check being cited as the decisive factor when changing jobs, a recent market survey has revealed.

The UK GDP (gross domestic product) increased by 0.8% in Q1 2014 compared with growth of 0.7% in Q4 2013, marking a solid growth, albeit just a bit under existing forecasts.

Around 25% of UK employers consider stress and mental ill health a major cause for short term absence, while the figure goes up to almost 45% when it comes to long-term absence, a recent research report published by the Group Risk Development (GRiD), the trade body for the group risk industry, has revealed.