Business

The jobs market continued to slow, with 9,000 fewer vacancies in the three months to September, official figures show. It is the 39th consecutive period where vacancy numbers have dropped. Having fewer job openings can mean it is harder to find work. Money blog: Big retirement age surprise awaits 14% of Britons There was also…

Tens of thousands of Vodafone users are reporting problems with their internet The outages began on Monday afternoon, according to the monitoring website DownDetector, which reported more than 130,000 issues with Vodafone connections. A spokeswoman for the company said: “We are aware of a major issue on our network currently affecting broadband, 4G and 5G…

The founder of Argentex Group, the foreign exchange group which collapsed this year amid market turmoil triggered by President Trump’s tariffs regime, has secured backing from Australia’s most powerful financial group for his latest venture. Sky News has learnt that Macquarie’s Commodities and Global Markets group has taken a minority stake in Tenora, an FX…

Former PM Rishi Sunak has been hired by tech giant Microsoft. The ex-Tory leader, who remains an MP in parliament, has joined the Seattle-based tech firm as a paid part-time senior adviser and will give the company “high-level strategic perspectives on macro-economic and geopolitical trends” as well as how these “intersect with innovation, regulation and…

One of the world’s largest real estate investors is in advanced talks with a London-listed group about a £1bn logistics deal – weeks after the duo were embroiled in a public bidding war for another industrial property group. Sky News has learnt that Blackstone, the American private equity behemoth, is nearing an agreement to sell…

An Irish start-up is hoping to have the UK’s first food drone delivery pilot scheme operating in 2026, subject to regulatory approval. With a fleet of specially designed 23kg quadcopters, Manna Aero has carried out more than 200,000 food delivery flights in west Dublin, Espoo in Finland and Texas. As the company aims to expand,…

The private equity firm Exponent is among a pack of suitors weighing a takeover of the UK arm of ADT, one of Britain’s biggest suppliers of residential security systems. Sky News has learnt that Exponent, which has owned companies including Ambassador Theatre Group, Big Bus Tours and the publisher of the Racing Post newspaper, is…

Legal & General (L&G) is plotting a swoop on the workplace pensions provider owned by NatWest Group, the FTSE-100 lender, as its chief executive seeks to grow its share of the UK retirement market. Sky News has learnt that L&G is among a handful of suitors which have expressed an interest in acquiring Cushon from…

Donald Trump has announced the US will impose an additional 100% tariff on China imports, accusing it of taking an “extraordinarily aggressive position” on trade. In a post to his Truth Social platform on Friday, the US president said Beijing had sent an “extremely hostile letter to the world” and imposed “large-scale export controls on…

Google has warned the UK against imposing “onerous” and costly regulations after the competition watchdog ruled it had “strategic market status” for its search services. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said legal tests had been met to designate Google with the status in general search and search advertising services due to “substantial and entrenched…