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UK Recession Risk Grows as Companies Cut Staff at a Sharp Pace
Britain’s private sector companies shed workers at the fastest pace since the pandemic and the depths of the financial crisis more than a decade ago, adding to the risk of a recession. S&P Global’s composite Purchasing Managers’ Index slipped to 46.8 in September from 48.6 the month before, the sharpest decline in output since January 2021 when the UK was in lockdown. The reading was worse than economists expected and plunged the private sector deeper into contraction territory. S&P also said there had been an “abrupt turnaround” in the jobs market, with staff cuts the fastest since October 2009 ... (full story)