Your Business Week: mid-year results, CSO stats, gender pay gap briefing

Also a summer school for bankers, and talk by Gert-Jan Koopman on EU budgets

Oonagh Buckley, deputy secretary general of Department of Justice, will brief CIPD on implications of the gender equality bill

Monday

Indicators: Euro zone loan growth and money supply (May), manufacturing PMI (June), unemployment (May); Bank of England consumer credit (May), net lending to individuals (May), mortgage lending and approvals (May), manufacturing PMI (June); German unemployment (June), manufacturing PMI (June); US manufacturing PMI (June), prices and orders (June), construction spending (May).

Tuesday

Indicators: Irish unemployment (June), exchequer returns; UK construction PMI (June); Euro zone PPI (May); German retail sales (May); US economic optimism (July), vehicle sales (June).

Meetings: Euro Banking Association (EBA) Summer School "The Invisible Payment: How technology and innovation is creating embedded consumer and SME payments" (Castleknock Hotel, Dublin 15).

Last month, Ireland reported its lowest unemployment rate in 14 years, the kind of economic performance indicator that makes it difficult to argue with progress but one that could come under strain in the near future.

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On Tuesday, Central Statistics Office (CSO) numbers will set out the position for June, the half way mark for 2019, having reported a rate of just 4.4 per cent in May, down from 4.6 per cent in April and 5.9 per cent in May, 2018.

Separately, the number of unemployment benefit claimants on the Live Register fell to an 11-year low in the same month. And while not a measure of unemployment, the register is a reliable indicator of labour market conditions.

Much like house prices moving in the opposite direction, unemployment numbers are monitored closely every month to see just how long Ireland’s recovery can continue at such a determined pace, even if the word “recovery” comes with its own problems for some.

It is of particular interest too, given how things might all unravel in the case of a no-deal Brexit, a prospect made all the more likely by the ongoing Tory leadership contest in the UK. Here, the Department of Finance has said such a scenario could add two percentage points to the unemployment rate, hardly catastrophic but a significant reversal of fortune.

Wednesday

Indicators: Euro zone composite and services PMI (June); UK services PMI (June); German composite and services PMI (June); US mortgage applications and rates (June), exports and imports (May), composite and services PMI (June), factory orders (May).

Meetings: An EU Budget for the Future talk with Gert-Jan Koopman, European Commission budget director general (Institute for International and European Affairs, North Great George's Street, Dublin 1).

Thursday

Indicators: Euro zones retail sales (May); UK new car sales (June); German construction PMI (June).

Meetings: C&C Group AGM (Intercontinental Hotel, Simmonscourt Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4); Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) briefing event on Diversity and Gender Pay Gap (UCD, Dublin 4).

Having been on the minds of board members and politicians for some time, the gender pay gap issue will take an increasingly central place in business debate over the coming months.

The Gender Pay Gap Information Bill reached its second stage in the Dáil in May. Early intentions for the legislation are that it will apply to companies and public service organisations with 250 or more employees in its first two years. It will then go on to cover organisations with fewer staff.

An event by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) on Thursday will examine the content and implications of the legislation. The CIPD, which is the professional body for HR, will debate the new proposed laws and discuss its own policy position and lessons learned from the UK experience.

The event is being hosted at University College Dublin whose HR team recently secured the diversity and inclusion award for its approach to transgender equality.

It will hear from Oonagh Buckley, deputy secretary general of the Department of Justice and Equality, on the implications of the bill currently going through the Oireachtas.

Friday

Indicators: Irish industrial production (May); UK house price index (June), labour productivity (Q1); German factory orders (May), industrial production (May); US average hourly earnings (June), non-farm payrolls (June), unemployment (June).