Britain is mired in a ‘mediocre and disappointing’ recovery with the economy barely regaining output lost to the pre-Christmas arctic snap, a survey has found.

In a gloomy report published overnight, the British Chambers of Commerce warned that the government’s austerity drive has acted as a ‘worrying’ drag on the UK’s economic revival. Despite a mini-boom in exports, confidence among manufacturers has slumped to levels last seen during the depths of the recession in 2009 because of ‘sluggish’ domestic demand, it found.

Lacklustre growth is causing firms to delay plans to hire new staff and invest in the future, with new employment in the services sector running at a three-year low, according to the BCC. Soaring raw material costs are also squeezing firms, with four out of five companies surveyed by the BCC admitting that they’re facing growing pressure to pass on commodity inflation to customers.

Continure reading here.

Unemployment rates increased in 46 of the 50 states last year, according to an annual report issued Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Rhode Island suffered the sharpest increase, 2.6 percentage points. Its average annual jobless rate soared from 5.2 percent in 2007 to 7.8 percent in 2008.

Florida and Nevada were the only other states with increases of two points or more. Florida’s average annual unemployment rate was 6.2 percent last year, up 2.1 points from 4.1 percent a year earlier. Nevada’s 2008 jobless rate was 6.7 percent, up two points from 4.7 percent in 2007.

Arkansas, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Oklahoma were the only states whose annual unemployment rates did not get higher last year. The first three stayed flat, while Oklahoma actually reduced its rate by 0.3 points, from 4.1 percent in 2007 to 3.8 percent in 2008.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics averaged monthly unemployment rates for each state to calculate annual figures. The national average last year was 5.8 percent. Michigan had the highest unemployment rate of any state in 2008, 8.4 percent. It was followed by Rhode Island at 7.8 percent and California at 7.2 percent.

Interested to know more about this?
Read the full report from the original source here.

The new federal economic stimulus package is expected to provide relief for Maryland’s small businesses through tax cuts and incentives that will help pull the country out of the recession, spokesmen for business groups said this week.

Besides cutting the income taxes of 95 percent of working families, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides tax breaks to many small-business owners. The stimulus package had received the support from a broad coalition ranging from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to unions, two groups usually on opposite sides on issues.

That’s recognition of the fact that businesses and unions and citizens all realize the country has the most difficult, complex economic problems that we’ve had in decades. While the spending on infrastructure projects has received considerable attention and will help put people back to work, the tax cuts for small businesses also will help with the economic recovery.

It seemed to me what the president was doing on [last week] was laying out a multifaceted plan to lead the country out of the recession and into an even stronger economic position to lead the world. Full report? Read it here.