In Short

A round-up of today's business news stories in brief

Three Central Bank positions filled

The Central Bank announced yesterday that it has filled three new directorate roles. Patrick Brady, a former head of insurance supervision at the Financial Regulator, has been appointed as assistant director general for policy and risk.

Mr Brady joined the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland in 2000 from the European Commission.

Bernard Sheridan will fill the position as associate director general for consumer protection. Mr Sheridan previously worked as head of the consumer protection codes department of the Central Bank.

The third position will be filled by Gerry Quinn, who takes up the reins as chief information officer (CIO), heading up the information technology division. Mr Quinn is an external recruit, having worked at Eircom for the last seven years as CIO and IT director.

New blueprint to aid job creation

A blueprint to help create employment and remove barriers for jobseekers, compiled by an employment initiative body, was yesterday presented to Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe.

The Employers’ Jobs Creation Initiative’s 10-point plan includes the appointment of a job creation tsar to co-ordinate employment programmes, the creation of a national recruitment body, and the establishment of a national jobseeker database.

Spokesman for the initiative Robert Mac Giolla Phádraig said the recommendations were viable.

The document suggested that the national jobseeker database should be compiled to include those available for work on the live register, with employers given free access to allow them to target desired skills sets.

German jobless falls more than expected

German unemployment fell far more than expected in April, declining by a seasonally adjusted 68,000 in the latest sign Europe’s largest economy is waking from its winter slumber.

The decline pushed the adjusted jobless rate down to 7.8 per cent from 8.0 per cent in March, Federal Labour Office figures showed.

Germany exited its deepest post-war recession in the second quarter of last year but the recovery stalled through the winter. Recent economic indicators, however, show the economy is picking up steam again. – (Reuters)

No housing recovery for 'three to five years'

The US housing market will not recover for three to five years as mounting foreclosures hold down prices, according to mortgage-bond pioneer Lewis Ranieri, chairman of Ranieri Partners LLC, said during a panel discussion yesterday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California.

Home foreclosures in the US probably will reach a record this year with more than 1 million properties seized by banks, according to data seller RealtyTrac.

Unemployment was 9.7 per cent in March, unchanged for a third month, according to the labour department. – (Bloomberg)

BSkyB adds 62,000 new customers

Huge demand for high definition services enabled British pay-TV firm BSkyB to add 62,000 net new customers in the third quarter of the year, increase user loyalty and extract a record amount from each subscriber.

The strong performance followed decent results from pay-TV rival Virgin Media yesterday, which said it was adding new customers at its fastest rate to date.

BSkyB has also benefited from its move to offer an increasing number of services including broadband, telephony and HD. – (Reuters)