Finance sector workforce continues to shrink, as internet banking takes off

DutchNews, December 17, 2018

Amsterdam’s Zuidas business district. Photo: DutchNews.nl 

While the construction and healthcare sectors are crying out for staff, the number of jobs in the financial sector continues to shrink, national statistics office CBS said on Monday. 

The size of the working population grew by 334,000 between 2006 and 2016, but the  number of people employed by banks and insurance companies fell 43,000, the CBS said.

 The shift to online banking has reduced the need for staff, and the banking crisis also led to thousands of people losing their jobs. 

Of the 12,000 people who stopped working in the financial sector in 2016, 40% ended up claiming unemployment benefits. In general, just under a quarter of people who lose their jobs end up claiming WW, the CBS said.

Almost 10,000 people complain about privacy being breached

DutchNews, December 13, 2018

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The Dutch privacy regulator Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens said on Thursday it had received almost 10,000 complaints since the introduction of new European privacy legislation (GDPR) in May this year.

In addition, 11 companies and organisations are being investigated for non-compliance after dozens of complaints were made about their operations, the AP said. 

Many complaints centred on companies which did not want to give people insight into the information they kept about them – which they are now required to do by law. Others focused on companies collecting too much information or companies selling or passing on private information to third parties. 

Service companies such as online retailers and public utilities were by far the most often complained about, followed by the IT sector and government departments, financial companies and healthcare.

‘I’m encouraged by just how many people are standing up for their right to privacy by making a complaint,’ chairman Aleid Wolfsen said in a statement. ‘They are giving a serious signal to a company, so that others do not end up in the same position.’

Social media tops print as news source for Americans: study

Yahoo – AFP, December 10, 2018

Newspapers are losing further ground in the US, with more people relying on social
media than print in 2018, according to a Pew Research Center report (AFP Photo/
Drew Angerer)

Washington (AFP) - Social media has overtaken print newspapers as a news source for Americans, researchers said Monday, highlighting the growing importance of services such as Facebook and Twitter as well as the troubled state of legacy news organizations.

The Pew Research Center report found 20 percent of US adults say they often get news via social media, compared with 16 percent from newspapers.

In 2016, newspapers were more important that social networks and in 2017 the percentages were roughly even for both sources, according to Pew surveys.

Despite the rise of social media, television remains the most important source for news, cited by 49 percent of American adults, Pew said.

The researchers found sharp differences among age segments in accessing the news, with younger adults far more likely to rely on social media and older consumers favoring television and print.

In the 18-29 age group, social media was the most important news source, cited by nearly three in 10 respondents, with only two percent favoring print newspapers.

A large majority of those 65 and older (81 percent) get news from television, with 39 percent using print newspapers and just eight percent social networks.

"Younger Americans are also unique in that they don't rely on one platform in the way that the majority of their elders rely on TV," said Pew research analyst Elisa Shearer.

"No more than half of those (aged) 18 to 29 and 30 to 49 get news often from any one news platform."

The report, based on a survey of 4,581 US adults in July and August, highlights the ongoing woes of print newspapers, which have been seeing steady readership declines for more than a decade.

A Pew study last year showed total US daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) in 2017 was 31 million for weekday and 34 million for Sunday, down 11 and 10 percent, respectively, from the previous year.