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Recent Editions
Human Times
North America
Epic Games, the developer of “Fortnite,” is laying off over 1,000 employees and cutting costs by $500m. Chief Executive Tim Sweeney announced the layoffs, attributing them to a decline in “Fortnite” engagement last year. “Despite Fortnite remaining one of the most successful games in the world, we've had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic with every season,” he said. The company has faced industry-wide challenges, including slower growth and tougher cost economics. The State of the Game Industry Report from the Game Developers Conference revealed that about one-third of U.S. video game industry workers were laid off in the past two years. Sweeney aims to focus on enhancing “awesome Fortnite experiences” and improving developer tools moving forward.
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Human Times
UK
The Fair Work Agency (FWA) will focus on persuading employers to comply with employment reforms rather than using its enforcement powers, according to chairman Matthew Taylor. He said that the threshold for deploying these powers is "quite high" and most breaches of employment law are unintentional. Taylor stressed the need for proportionality in enforcement, saying: "In a perfect world you minimise the amount of enforcement you have to do because you maximise the amount of compliance you achieve by educating employers." He added that enforcement powers such as entering workplaces or homes would be used sparingly. The agency, which brings together enforcement bodies, will target sectors with higher exploitation risks, such as construction and social care.
Full Issue
Human Times
Europe
Bloomberg reports that Finland has posted another set of "dire" employment market figures, with the European Union's worst joblessness reaching levels previously seen during the first wave of the pandemic. The headline unemployment rate increased to 10.9% in February, the most in almost six years, and the trend jobless rate rose to 10.5%, according to data from Statistics Finland. Youth unemployment was higher than for the overall population, with the trend rate for 15-24-year-olds at 22.9%. The increase in joblessness is partly explained by stricter job-search requirements and changes to social security, said economists at research institute Pellervo Economic Research.
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Human Times
Middle East
Iran-linked hackers have destroyed the data of over 50 small Israeli companies in the past few weeks and compromised dozens of security cameras, according to Yossi Karadi, the director-general of the Israel National Cyber Directorate. He said most of the targeted companies had existing cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and companies with stronger cybersecurity protections weren’t affected. The near-total internet blackout in Iran has not impacted the pace of attacks. “Some of them are using satellite capabilities, but there are also other ways that they can use to continue doing cyberattacks,” Karadi explained.
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