INTERNATIONAL

24-June 2009

Ireland
Proposed cuts to public sector funding, which were due to affect up to 22,500 participants on community employment schemes, have been reversed, according to The Irish Times.

Canada
Canada cut 42,000 jobs in May, pushing its unemployment rate up 0.4 percentage points to 8.4% — its highest rate in 11 years, according to
Statistics Canada.

New Zealand
Ahead of the review of the Immediate Skills Shortage List (ISSL), dairy farmers have lobbied to have skilled dairy farming positions listed on the ISSL. A spokesman for Federated Farmers Employment said that over 4,000 people will be needed to work in New Zealand to cover the
increasing shortage in the industry.

Spain
Spain’s unemployment growth rate could slow over the remainder of the year after May saw the first decline in joblessness in 14 months, Spain’s labour minister Celestino Corbacho told US media news channel ABC in an interview.

India
The recent victory of India’s Congress party in the country’s national elections will result in less protectionist policies, Uzair Bawany, managing director at Contact Recruitment, who has an office in Noida near New Delhi, told Recruiter. “India has gone through a rigorous process. As a result of the split vote and the broad voting, we will see a more commercial environment.”