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The latest news on unemployment, employment, benefits and the economy. Find out who’s hiring, who’s firing, changes to benefits, the unemployment rate and everything that’s new in our world.
Under-fire Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan Smith will finally face a committee of MPs this afternoon to account for his failures on the Universal Credit system.
In advance of this he gave an interview to The Financial Times in which he said he took "complete responsibility ... from start to finish" for the issues affecting the scheme.
Construction machinery maker JCB is to create 2,500 new jobs.
It will build new factories in Cheadle, Cheshire, and Uttoxeter in Staffordshire as part of a £150 million expansion.
The boost to output will also help create work at the company's components factories at Foston in Derbyshire and Wrexham.
The level of UK construction output is still lower than before the recession but JCB is a successful exporter to other countries.
Phillip Atkins, leader of Stoke City Council, said:
Under-fire Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has admitted that he will miss his most recent timetable for the introduction of Universal Credit - the latest in a long line of delays.
He chose to release this information on the day the Chancellor gives his Autumn Statement, when most political reporters are busy, hiding his latest disappointment behind George Osborne.
Food poverty has grown in the UK to a point of national health emergency - and benefit cuts are to blame.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, the scientists and public health experts said the rise in starvation and food bank use bore the hallmarks of a national medical emergency.
In a letter the group points the finger at the government's benefit cuts, citing evidence from the UK's biggest food bank provider the Trussell Trust:
A group of MPs has called on the government to publish its long-awaited report on food banks.
The study was delivered to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in June, but there has been speculation that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), headed up by under-fire Iain Duncan Smith, has banned its release.
A new report on Universal Credit shows that poverty is growing for those taking part in pilot schemes.
The scheme has been blighted from the start, with accusations of mismanagement, allegations that it does not work, the write-off of hundreds of millions of pounds due to IT failures, and a far slower introduction pace than promised.
The welfare state is no longer affordable and needs to be cut further.
This is the message Chancellor George Osborne will deliver when he gives his Autumn Statement on Thursday, according to The Telegraph.
Gas and electricity giant NPower is to make 1,460 staff redundant, it has confirmed.
The German-owned company, one of the 'big six' electricity and gas suppliers in the UK, will cut jobs including checking meter readings against bills.
Chief executive Paul Massara said: "This restructure is necessary if we are to deliver the levels of service our customers deserve."
It is not clear how service quality will be improved by sending these functions offshore, but the company will now use staff in India to deliver them.
NPower currently employs 9,600 people in the UK.
Three-quarters of workers who were in low pay ten years ago are still stuck in it today, a report has found.
Thinktank the Resolution Foundation also showed that fewer than one-in-five had managed to escape and move up the career ladder.
Entry-level work provides a vital first step for unemployed people, and if it works as a trap the previously workless are likely to suffer more than most.
The European Union has criticised the Conservative plan to block EU citizens from receiving UK benefits.
Employment Commissioner Laszlo Andor said Britain risked being seen as a "nasty country" because of the plan, which would mean a person needs to be resident in the UK for three months before they were entitled to benefits.
From 1st January people from Bulgaria and Romania will have full workers rights in the whole EU, prompting fears from some that the UK jobs market will struggle to accommodate them.