Cineworld confirms UK and US closures; UK car sales hit two-decade low – business live

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsLatest: September car sales weakest since 1999Cineworld shares halve in value in early tradingCineworld to temporarily suspend operations in UK and US45,000 employees impacted; closures begin on ThursdayJames Bond delay was final blowAlso coming up...UK car sales fell around 4% in SeptemberGlobal markets rise on Trump medical news 10.08am BST Cineworld’s decision to shut its UK and US screens is awful news for around 45,000 staff, who are now out of work, explains my colleague Jasper Jolly:Shares in Cineworld have plunged after it confirmed it will temporarily close all of its cinemas in the UK and US as it struggles with the pandemic-induced lack of new films to draw in audiences, including the twice-delayed new James Bond instalment.Some 45,000 employees will be out of work because of the closures, including about 5,500 staff in the UK and 20,000 in the US, as well as contractors such as cleaners and security workers. Staff were informed on Sunday. Related: Cineworld to cut 45,000 jobs as Covid closes cinemas 10.05am BST Britain’s services companies continued to cut jobs last month, despite growth holding up better than feared.The latest survey of purchasing managers across UK services firms shows that layoffs continued last month -- a trend that is worsening with Cineworld’s closures.The near-term outlook remains unusually uncertain and firms continued to take an extremely cautious approach to cost management and hiring...Latest data indicated that employee numbers in the UK service sector continued to fall. Whilst easing to the slowest since March, the rate of job losses was again marked amid evidence of ongoing spare capacity despite some tentative evidence of emerging capacity pressures: backlogs of work increased modestly during September, and for the first time in two years.Supporting activity was a further increase in levels of incoming new work, also the third in successive months. With the withdrawal of the UK government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme, plus an introduction of some tighter restrictions on activity in September, growth in new business was softer than in August.A lack of international tourism was also reported to have weighed on foreign business, which overall continued to fall sharply. Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2020/oct/05/cineworld-cinema-closures-uk-us-car-sales-donald-trump-stock-markets-business-lvie #business #eurozone #economics #ftse #stock_markets #uk_news #cineworld #film_industry