Business News Round Up (12/11/2024)
Unemployment rises as pay growth slows again
The UK’s unemployment rate has risen, official figures suggest, while pay growth continues to slow. The rate of unemployment stood at 4.3% in Q3, up from 4% the previous quarter. However, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) urged caution, external over giving too much weight to its latest figures due to issues with how it gathers the data. While wage growth has eased, pay is still rising faster than inflation, which measures the rate of price increases. Excluding bonuses, pay grew at an annual rate of 4.8% between July and September – the lowest in more than two years. The number of vacancies also fell again, as they have been doing for more than two years now. But the ONS’s Labour Force Survey, which produces the data on jobs in the UK, has had a smaller number of respondents over the past year than normal, prompting concerns over its reliability.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8dz3n0z71o
Scotland jobs growth second-top among 12 UK nations and regions
Scotland was placed fifth out of the 12 UK nations and regions in the league table of private sector economic growth last month. The nation made the top half of the table even though its rate of expansion was the second weakest in its current 10-month run of growth. And Scotland recorded the second-fastest growth in private sector employment among the 12 UK nations and regions in October, behind only Northern Ireland. Most parts of the UK recorded declines in employment last month, according to the latest growth tracker survey from Royal Bank of Scotland published today. Scotland’s services sector performed strongly in October, offsetting a sharp decline in manufacturing activity. The seasonally adjusted Scotland business activity index was 51.3 in October. This was up slightly from September’s reading of 51.2, and comfortably above the level of 50 deemed to separate expansion from contraction.
New Scottish tech start-up accelerator launches
A new accelerator programme has been launched to help Scottish start-ups secure investment. It is being delivered by CodeBase-run Techscaler, in partnership with Focused for Business. The three-month Funding Accelerator programme is designed for start-ups looking to raise their first or second rounds of equity investment, in the £100,000 to £1m range. Research indicates that while early-stage funding in the UK dropped by only 7% in Q1 2024, against Q4 2023, the year-on-year quarterly decline was closer to 25%. Lauren Wilson, Scaleup programme manager at CodeBase, said: “Scotland’s tech start-up scene is going from strength to strength, but getting early-stage funding can feel like a major uphill battle. It is also time consuming and can take founders away from running the business. So, we want to give them the knowledge, tools and networks to navigate the investor community, with a view to giving them the best chance of success.”
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/new-scottish-tech-start-up-34088018
Deloitte unveil UK’s fastest 50 growing tech firms
Online banking platform Allica Bank has topped Deloitte’s UK Technology Fast 50 awards for the second year running, a ranking of the UK’s 50 fastest growing technology companies. The London-based bank reported a three-year growth rate of 13,411% to the year 2023/24. The combined revenue of the Fast 50 companies totalled £1.93bn in 2023/24, with an average revenue growth of 2,468% over a three-year period. Deloitte has announced the winners of the 2024 UK Technology Fast 50 awards, which recognise and rank the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the UK. The 2024 Fast 50 winners have a collective average three-year growth rate of 2,468% and generated total revenues of £1.93bn in 2023/24. 70% of the 2024 Fast 50 winners hail from London, including four of the top five, as the UK capital remains the hub for technology start-ups and investment in the UK.
https://businesscloud.co.uk/news/deloitte-unveil-uks-fastest-50-growing-firms