Tuesday newspaper round-up: Hiring, Drax, Piggybank
Employers in Britain have “hit the pause button” on job hiring, according to a survey of the labour market that shows demand for new workers has tumbled to a seven-year low. ManpowerGroup said years of strong jobs growth had ended in 2019 as Brexit uncertainty and a slowdown in global trade took their toll on business confidence. – Guardian
An energy company once labelled western Europe’s biggest polluter is planning to become the world’s first carbon-negative business within 10 years. The owner of the Drax power plant, once a coal-fired behemoth, is the first company in the world to set out plans to absorb more carbon emissions from the air than it creates by 2030. – Guardian
British science is to be handed a major boost from a US property developer preparing to plough up to $500m (£380m) into building new laboratories across the country. San Diego-based real estate firm Creative Science Properties has teamed up with estate agent Savills to scout out locations in Cambridge, Oxford and London where new labs could be built. – Telegraph
Piggybank has become the latest payday lender to go bust, leaving customers in limbo over loan repayments. The company said yesterday that it had stopped new lending and had gone into administration. Customers should continue to make their repayments in the normal way, it added. Its demise comes after the failures of Quickquid, 247Moneybox and Wonga, Britain’s biggest short-term lender. – The Times
President Trump tried to undermine Amazon’s bid for a $10 billion Pentagon contract to hurt Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder and chief executive, it has been claimed Mr Trump exerted “improper pressure” on the bidding process to harm his “perceived political enemy”, lawyers for Amazon said in court papers. – The Times