Workspace

  • Companies will keep top staff

    09 December 2008 | Fiona Smith | The Australian Financial Review

    If jobs have to go, the smart companies will protect their best and brightest to help with the eventual upturn, writes Fiona Smith.

  • Briefs

    09 December 2008 | The Australian Financial Review

    Blue-collar winnersThe job market is not looking too hot for merchant bankers and financiers, but newly minted apprentices have no problems at all, according to the Student Outcomes Survey, published by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research.

  • Stuck in the middle and feeling blue

    09 December 2008 | Fiona Smith | The Australian Financial Review

    Middle managers are a sad and sorry lot. Misunderstood and underappreciated by the top brass, they are working harder than ever to keep their jobs, while having the unenviable task of handling the human carnage of downsizing.

  • Silver lining in a horror year for gender equity

    09 December 2008 | Catherine Fox cfox@afr.com.au | The Australian Financial Review

    It seems 2008 may be remembered as the annus horribilis for gender equity in the workforce. It was a sign of just how dire things got that even the Business Council of Australia raised the usually taboo topic of setting quotas for the appointment of women in senior ranks to act as a circuit-breaker.

AFR Market Wrap

Pepped up

Markets: ASX boosted

Commodities: Oil slips

Resources: Atlas Iron rising

Mumford: Fed must be flexible

Watch out for dead-cat bounce

After recording their largest declines last year, commodities markets are set for further weakness over the first half of 2009, writes Stephen Wyatt.

Mergers slow to snail's pace

Mergers and acquisitions activity is set for a sluggish start to '09 after five years of continuous growth, reports Patrick Durkin.

Banks seek exit plan for guarantee

Banks have urged the federal government to explain its exit strategy for the guarantee on bank deposits, reports Matthew Drummond.

Survivors emerge from the rubble

Last year wasn't pretty for any stockmarket in Asia, but it was especially brutal for Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average, reports Katrina Nicholas.

Don't buy into a disastrous trade war

'Buy America' may sound like a pretty innocuous call to arms, but it's one of the scariest lines I've heard in a long time, writes Glenn Mumford.

Anthony Hughes: Downtown

EXCLUSIVE FROM NEW YORK What's more ridiculous? Kudos for bank CEO's forgoing bonuses or outrage over how bail-out money is being spent.

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