The government have announced that the minimum wage for over 21 year olds is set so rise in October of this year from £6.50 to £6.70. This is roughly in line with inflation and has disappointed many who were expecting a higher increase to £7 per hour.

The other political parties are now setting out their policies of which Labour is stating that they would increase the minimum wage to £8 per hour by the year 2020 and the Liberal Democrats are setting out plans to make people on minimum wage tax exempt.

The Green party have expressed that they would immediately raise the minimum wage to meet the living wage level and further increase to £10 per hour by 2020. They also wish to abolish the age differentials between minimum wage levels meaning that everyone over the age of 16 would be entitled to the full minimum wage.

The common policy between all the parties seems to be an increase in minimum wage levels, just of varying degrees and with different conditions attached to the increase.

Many people are still struggling with finding a job following the recession. Often you will hear people say that you can not be chooses when it comes to employment and you should grab any job opportunity with both hands. This can be the case if you are desperate for work and need an income instantly, but if you are able to spend a little bit more time job hunting then you may not always take the first job you are offered.
When looking to apply for a new job position, not only should you consider if you have the relevant experience and qualifications but also is it a job that you would be happy doing? If the answer is no then you probably shouldn’t even apply.
Too many people get stuck in jobs that they despise and that is not good for the employee or the employer as the quality of work produced is likely to be low and it can also have a knock on affect on other members of staff.

If you’re self employed, you may find yourself turning down work as you don’t have enough hours in the day. It’s frustrating as one job well done can often lead to many more and it’s hard not to feel like your passing up future business. It’s doubly annoying if you have a lull a few months later. Taking on an employee is the obvious answer, but it can be a daunting process.

You’ll need to consider how much you can pay, whether to train someone up or get someone fully qualified. Do you offer a temporary position or commit to someone full time? There’s also all the legal and other paper work to contend with. Employers liability insurance must be taken out and appropriate PPE provided. You’ll have to notify HMRC and make sure you comply with workers rights.

This all seems like a major headache but the upshot is you’ll be able to expand your business. With a few employees on your books, you’ll be free to organise jobs better, take more time meeting clients and maybe find time to enjoy the benefits of all your hard work.

For many of us, there may come a time when you feel that you want a total change of career. This can happen for many reasons such as change in personal circumstances, offered a job in a different industry to one that you are used to or just feeling like you want a change. Whatever the reason for wanting to change your career, you need to assess the affects that this will have on your time, financial situation and future prospects. It may be that you will need to return to some sort of education to obtain a qualification or specific training, which could mean to are not able to work at the same time. This can have a massive affect on your finances.

Try and be sure that this is something that you really want to do, and not just something you have decided after a bad day at work in your current role.

When looking to recruit new staff it can be daunting to think of conducting face to face interviews, particularly if it’s the first time that you have had to do them.

One of the first things to do is look at the job that you are recruiting for and come up with a comprehensible job description that can be given to candidates for the preparation of the interview. This should include key responsibilities of the role along with mandatory skills and qualifications then additional skills/qualifications desired.

Based on the job description it is then important to prepare a list of questions that you will pose to a candidate to determine their suitability for the role including an allocated time where they can ask questions about the role/company at the end.

You may also want to include a short test as part of the interview process such as a simple copy and re-write exercise of a table of information. This will give you an indication of the accuracy of the candidates work along with an idea of how they cope under pressure.

It’s always worth remembering that most people in an interview situation are nervous and so it’s important to make some allowances for that to be able to get a clear representation of the candidate and get an idea of their suitability for the role.

With thousands and thousands of people finding themselves out of work following the recession, there was a huge shortage of jobs available and only people who had the best qualifications and experience seemed to be able to find employment.

Too many people had to sign on for benefits, and many of those people could not afford to live properly and also didn’t like not working. This seemed to encourage many people to start up their own business. Some going it alone and others in a partnership or group. Often they struggled initially, but as the economy got better and they had used the time to build up their business, things started to pick up. Now some of those businesses that were started up during the recession are doing really well and have a strong customer base.

Starting up your own company can be daunting, but with the right help and advice most people can do it.

Jobs come in all shapes and sizes and the routes to obtaining these jobs can be very different. For certain careers, such as becoming a doctor, there are strict paths that need to be followed in order for you to qualify and find a vacancy. For other jobs, you may be able to take many different routes.

If you are unsure of what is required for the profession that you wish to work in, you can speak to a careers advisor, these are readily available if you are still in education but for those of you that are a little older, the Job Centre is often a good place to start. The internet is full of useful information about training courses and degrees that are available, and will often explain the processes involved in becoming qualified in your chosen field.

If a particular route of training is not suitable to you, don’t give up as there are often other ways round and you may find it takes a little longer but the end results is often the same.

Recent figures have been released to show that over 1.9 million jobs could have been created by the end of 2014 thanks to new small – medium sized businesses. This increase is largely due to the number of new businesses starting up and previous self employed people working from home looking to take on their first member or members of staff. With recent government programs to help people start up their own company, there has been a large increase in this happening. Potentially, this could add up to £27 billion pounds for the United Kingdom’s economy. Research has shown that a new employee working in a small to medium sized business will on average, be expect to work about 28-30 per week, where as an employee taken on by a start up business working from home would be more likely to work about 20-21 hours per week. I think this is a fantastic change and should be welcomed by all.

Many employers ask you to send a covering letter with your CV or job application. Below are a few tips and guides on how to write a great cover letter.  Your letter should be about a page longer and no more than two. The idea of a cover letter is to give the reader an overview of what position you want to apply for and what you can offer to them. I usually advise people to split their letter in to 3 paragraphs.

The first paragraph should explain who you are and what position you wish to apply for.  You may also wish to state your current employment position i.e. I am currently employed as a receptionist at a Volkswagen dealership in Wales.

The second one should give the employer an overview of what skills and experience you have, do not go in to too much detail as you can do this on your /cv. You need to get a happy medium between giving information and not going on too much as to put the employer off.

The closing paragraph should basically thank them for their consideration and state that you would be happy to attend and interview or talk to them further if they have any questions.

When starting to look for a new job, the process can be a bit unnerving especially if this is the first time or it has been quite some time since you last applied for a position. There are now a number of great online jobs boards that let you upload your CV for free. These jobs boards are visited constantly by employers and recruitment agencies that search through the CV’s looking for prospective candidates to invite for interviews.

Once you have uploaded your CV it is normally a very short time before you start to receive calls and emails about positions available that suit your skill set. Recruitment agencies often play the middle man, communicating between you and the employer and setting up initial interviews. Online jobs boards are a great portal to advertise yourself often without any cost to yourself. You can also find useful information on jobs boards about how to write your CV and interview techniques.