The odds are that most of you are not familiar with Balfour Beatty, unless that is you work in the construction industry. For those of you who are not familiar with the company here is a look at how the company describes itself  on its website:

“For more than 100 years we have created and cared for the vital assets that enable societies and economies to grow: road and rail; airports, seaports, tunnels and bridges; health and education facilities; heat, light, power and water; places to live and places to work – the infrastructure that underpins all our lives and drives progress.”

They also have the honor of being the largest construction company in the UK. Sadly however, the company has threaten to layoff all of its staff. Yes you read that right, all of its staff in the UK. The company is threatening to cut back on about 12,000 workers. The warning is, for the time being, by no means official as it was only mentioned in a trade journal, but still most companies will not even hint at those kinds of layoffs unless they mean it. After all, the company only employs about 50,000 people worldwide, so the cuts would be more than one fifth of the company’s current staff. Apparently notices have been sent out, but the company is not sure how many of them will actually be implemented.

Of course these are not the only job cuts to come to the workers in the UK. For those of you who missed out on our earlier coverage of retail job cuts in the UK here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed:

“Retail jobs have never been the best opportunity out there for workers. Many of them as part time, come without the benefit of health insurance and they are always at the mercy of the sales numbers coming in from a store. In many cases the pay is also close to, if not exactly, minimum wage. Yet, in these troubled times a growing number of people have found themselves in the position of taking a retail job to make end meet, when no other work is available and unemployment insurance is running low.

While workers in Europe mostly do not have to worry about the same problems with health insurance, being out of a job can still be as devastating to household incomes and standards of living.

Retail workers in the United Kingdom were in for a nasty shock in the month of December, as many of them were told that they might be laid off in 2012. The layoffs warnings have some fairly far reaching implications.

If the predictions turn out to be true then the impending layoffs will have an impact on more than 11,800 retail jobs and 870 retail locations, many of which are known in the UK as high street names. For those of you not up to date on your British slang a high street name usually refers to a high-end designer, or an expensive boutique style of shop. Similar to the ones you might find in the fashion or high end-shopping district of any major city.

Six of these companies were either put up for sale or placed in to administration in the month of December. Lower than expected sales for the holiday season have put several of the weaker chains out of business completely and many experts expect more closures and consolidations are coming in the near future.”