The recession is forcing British Telecom, Britians largest telecom provider to offer some of its staff the option of taking a year off work at 25% of full time pay, as an alternative to further redundancies in an attempt to cut costs and ride out the recession which follows a heavy first quarter loss of £1.3 billion, with similar projected loss for the 2nd Quarter of 2009.

To date British Telecom has already axed 15,000 jobs leaving approximately 100,000 employees, with the goal of reducing the workforce by another 10,000 however the without having to resort to redundancies which would leave the company with having to undertake the expensive exercise of having to recruit and train staff once the economy recovers.

My analysis of of February 2009 forecast that the UK should hit bottom by the third quarter with a strong economic recovery into mid 2010 to be followed by a high risk of a double dip recession due to the growing and mostly unrecognised at the time debt burden that would need to be dealt with following the 2010 General Election. Subsequent data and analysis has increasingly reinforced the outlook for a double dip UK recession and especially following late April's UK Budget revisions to the actual levels of government borrowing and budget deficit by the Chancellor, Alistair Darling that proceeded to rip to shreds the preceding consensus on the projected budget deficit as illustrated by the graph below.

By Nadeem Walayat
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Nadeem Walayat has over 20 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis specialises on the housing market and interest rates. Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. We present in-depth analysis from over 250 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets. Thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities.

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