Business week in pictures

Barack Obama hails the 162,000 rise in non-farm payrolls as the 'best news on the jobs front for two years' but the jobless rate is still at 9.7%
Photograph: Bloomberg

In an attempt to win back market share and reclaim its cool, jeans manufacturer Levi's has given up the old-fashioned idea of putting clothes in the window in its key store in Regent Street
Photograph: Keith Parry

A cross-party group of MPs claims a better gender balance could have countered the 'groupthink' culture behind the financial crisis. Of the 14-member committee, the only woman is Northampton MP Sally Keeble
Photograph: Frank Baron

EMI's executive chairman Charles Allen. The struggling music company needs to plug a £100m-plus funding gap or it could face seizure by Citigroup, a US investment bank
Photograph: Murdo Macleod

Several foreign retailers - including Cortefiel, 'the Spanish Next' - have plans to set up shop in the UK, attracted by the scale of a market in which retail sales hit £286bn last year and a national obsession with shopping
Photograph: Kim Karpeles/Alamy

Cadbury's Somerdale factory in Bristol, which will be closed by 2011 despite promises it would be safeguarded when Kraft acquired the company. MPs accused the American food company of acting "irresponsibly and unwisely" during its £11.6bn takeover
Photograph: Mr Standfast/Alamy

Toyota's quality audit facilities in Japan. After the most testing year in its 73-year history, the company's executives can perhaps afford guarded optimism after it reported March sales in the US were up 41% from last year
Photograph: Everett Kennedy Brown/EPA

The monthly Purchasing Managers' Index showed the construction sector returned to growth in March for the first time in two years, adding to optimism over the recovery
Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg

Sir Richard Branson's company, Virgin Money, and Spanish bank Santander are among five bidders for 318 branches the Royal Bank of Scotland is forced to sell to meet EU conditions
Photograph: Peter Schneider/Keystone

The Renault Twingo. Renault, Nissan and Daimler have announced a three-way partnership to bolster their range of small, energy-efficient vehicles
Photograph: Pierre Verdy/AFP/Getty Images

The Dorchester hotel in London. The service sector has seen signs of slow recovery, but the long-term forecasts are positive with Britain set to outpace Japan, Germany and US according to forecasts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Photograph: Anthony Harvey

Bart Becht, the man behind Cillit Bang kitchen cleaner, has shattered British records for executive pay after taking home more then £90m in cash and shares in one year
Photograph: PR

Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou. As the country slips further into debt crisis, ministers are planning visits to the US and China to secure funds and calm markets
Photograph: Reuters

BA and Iberia airlines signed a formal agreement to amalgamate operations – although both will operate under their original brands
Photograph: AP

Staff at Marks & Spencer will share an £80m bonus pot after the company beat its targets for 2009 despite the recession. The bumper payout is the second highest ever paid by M&S, and is larger than forecast
Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg