World Forex and Finance

Ad agencies wrestle with talent shortage

AS MANY as 10 per cent of mid-level positions at advertising agencies are vacant at any one time, the first study of its kind has revealed.
Of the agencies surveyed, 80 per cent say they struggle with chronic talent shortages, particularly in account management and creative and digital roles. The shortage is most prevalent in junior (one to four years) and mid-level (four to seven years) positions.
Ninety-two per cent of agencies said that up to 10 per cent of positions remained vacant at any one time as they were unable to find suitably experienced staff.
The survey of about 20 per cent of the industry was conducted by the Communications Council in recent weeks and helps to explain why the ad industry is widely known for ruthless poaching.
Some staff hand in their notices and walk into more senior roles with competitors that offer up to $30,000 a year more, despite being underqualified for the jobs.

Times changing in race for survival

IS THE newspaper business in such bad shape that even The New York Times, that great American journalistic institution, will inevitably be forced out of business?
The director of a new documentary on the paper, Andrew Rossi, thought its death was a definite chance when he started filming in late 2009.
''Two weeks after I started shooting, the Times underwent historic lay-offs, eliminating 100 positions in their newsroom,'' he says. ''There was a sense of apocalypse.''

Changing newsroom ... a scene from Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times which examines the news business.

Rossi, a former digital cameraman and reporter with the New York Post and the TV news channel NY1, was given access to the newspaper's media team for Page One: A Year Inside The New York Times.

Bloggers must choose to be either constructive or cowardly

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column comparing two campaigns. I was interested in celebrating the one I thought was good. But in so doing, I was also critical of the other. I received a lot of feedback from people telling me they agreed, but I was also criticised by some for my criticism.
It made me reflect on the ''code of ethics'' (mine, and in general) for the review and commentary of the creative work of others.
When it comes to the creative side of our business it is all about opinion, so having a point of view is the lifeblood of what we do. But with this comes subjectivity - anyone can have an opinion, qualified or not. I cannot tell you how many times as a child I would listen to my dad providing a narrative on the ad breaks, telling anyone within earshot he could do better himself.
What are the rules for sharing our opinions on the work of others?
We could keep them to ourselves. Or share them only when we wanted to praise. It would reduce some of the negative energy on the planet. But might it also create a slightly anodyne world, a touch too sweet or, worse still, censored?

Bank of America may lop 40,000 jobs: report

Bank of America Corp officials have discussed slashing roughly 40,000 jobs during the first wave of a restructuring, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the plans.
The number of job cuts are not final and could change. The restructuring aims to reduce the bank's workforce over a period of years, the Journal said.
The newspaper said BofA executives met Thursday in Charlotte and will gather again Friday to make final decisions on the reductions, putting the finishing touches on five months of work.
Bank of America could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular US business hours.
Banks are shedding jobs worldwide as stricter regulations and a tough second quarter for trading income take their toll on investment banking units in particular.
Reuters

China inflation slows, eases pressure to cool demand

China's annual consumer price inflation cooled slightly to 6.2 per cent in August from July's three-year high, raising expectations that the central bank will hold off on further policy tightening amid worries about a global economic slowdown.
The consumer price index rose 0.3 per cent in August from the previous month, after a 0.5 per cent rise in July. The figure is not seasonally adjusted.
Giving a more detailed breakdown of the index, the bureau said food prices rose 13.4 per cent in the year to August, with non-food prices up 3.0 per cent.
In month-on-month terms, food prices rose 0.6 per cent, while non-food prices were up 0.2 per cent.
The producer price index rose 7.3 per cent in the year to August and was up 0.1 from July.
Reuters

Japan's economy shrinks as strong yen hurts

Japan's economy contracted more than the government initially estimated in the second quarter, adding to concern the stronger yen may derail the nation's recovery from the March 11 earthquake.
Gross domestic product shrank at an annualised 2.1 per cent rate in the three months ended June 30, more than the 1.3 per cent contraction reported last month, the Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo. The reading was in line with the median forecast of 21 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Reports in the past week indicate growth in the world's third-largest economy may stall toward the end of the year.
Machinery orders, a leading indicator of capital spending, fell the most in 10 months in July and companies are also struggling with a yen near a postwar record, risking an erosion of oversea profits when they're repatriated.

Wealth fund would preserve golden era

It is maybe a considerable blow to our national pride that the Philippines boasts the world's biggest crocodile, but when it comes to the national accounts Australia can stand tall.
While other Western economies are ailing, ours is plodding along quite nicely at 1.2 per cent, according to the second-quarter gross domestic product numbers.
Mind you, that's well below the 3.2 per cent trend, and it's before August ructions on global markets and the recent slather of downgrades in Europe and the US.
Still, it surpassed expectations and sparked the strongest rise in the sharemarket in a year. Here was evidence, against the prevailing and bearish tide of economic punditry, that things were not too bad.
Really, not too much to whinge about - and certainly a superior performance to that of our peers.
It seems the clamour by sections of the media and business designed to talk down the economy and skewer the Gillard government had become a tad too infectious.
On the consumer front, the message from the numbers is don't expect a rate cut too soon, unless perhaps the global market ructions turn into a violent rout. The next relevant data point comes in late October with the consumer price index. Meantime, the jury is entirely out.

Quarterly GDP hours worked trend. Source: ABS

Amidst the mostly good news in yesterday's national accounts figures, there was one potentially worrying chart - the history of quarterly GDP movements plotted against the trend figure for hours worked.
Given today's uptick in unemployment, it was a very timely reminder of the labor force implications of even a mildly slower rate of economic growth.
Superficially, the chart above confirms what everybody knows about employment being a lagging indicator, but a closer look shows it's a little more complicated than that. Employment (or at least hours worked) lags more on the upside than it does on the down.
In the two major downturns this century, growth in hours worked dived pretty much in unison with GDP growth slowing and then overshot GDP into negative territory, taking several months to get back into the positive.