More than 600 posts alone are likely to be offered in and around Edinburgh, where Safeway hopes to upgrade a dozen stores by the autumn.
Bouquets for Barclays bank, where City analysts say declining headcounts may have reached a trough and point to the potential impact of its decision to extend branch opening hours, which will add 2,000 jobs over two years.
Praise Leeds , which is sprouting thousands of jobs in financial and business services. The number of jobs in the sector has jumped from 66,000 to 105,000 in the past decade and is likely to reach 146,000 by 2010, according to the Leeds Development Agency. Investment in transport, including a £160m modernisation of Leeds railway station, is expected to continue to fuel jobs growth.
And, finally, applaud the Transport and General Workers for winning a £2.3m payout for 500 female cabin staff who lost money when British Airways grounded them when they became pregnant.
Jeers for PricewaterhouseCoopers , the receivers to embattled shipbuilders Cammell Laird, for inflicting a further 93 redundancies as efforts continued to find a buyer for the firm's three yards.
PwC said 82 jobs will be cut from Tyneside, six from Birkenhead and five from Tyneside. The fresh cuts leave just over 1,000 employees at the yards, which are rapidly running out of work. Work on a ferry and an offshore vessel at Tyneside is due to be completed tomorrow, while the Birkenhead yard will finish its contracts by the end of the month.
Jeers for US-owned GE Aircraft Engine Services , which is set to axe around 250 jobs. The cuts will be made at operations in Nantgarw, South Wales, where 1,400 people are employed. The firm is citing a downturn in the global aviation market for the losses at the factory, which overhauls engines for airlines including British Airways and KLM.
And jeers for Atlantic Telecom , which is to axe a further 300 UK jobs as it continues its retreat from the residential market to focus on business customers. The job cuts, combined with 350 losses announced in January, will slash Atlantic's UK workforce by two-thirds this year.
