SME job cuts may accelerate - CBI

According to the CBI, almost 40% of firms surveyed cut jobs in the final three months of 2008, with just 7% taking on more workers. Seven in 10 firms said they were working below capacity, and the CBI says firms' outlook remains bleak going into 2009. It says optimism about the business environment fell at its sharpest rate since the survey began in 1987. "Firms are steeling themselves for a very difficult few months," says Russel Griggs, chairman of the CBI's Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Council. "As a result, job losses are expected to accelerate among SMEs." Griggs says m...