Richard delves into the latest manufacturing news and this week topics include…

• HS2 high-speed rail link between London and the midlands
• Rolls Royce is currently developing a brand new engine which, despite being much larger than conventional engines, it is expected to be considerably quieter and lighter.
• A British company called Reaction Engines is working on a totally new type of propulsion system, called Sambre which would be used on both aircraft and spacecraft.
• The first big UK economic survey of 2020 has seen some good news with the confederation of British industry reporting a big jump in confidence over the three months to January.

If you made it into work on Monday, January 20th – well done! That was Blue Monday, which as well as being a great track by New Order is reckoned to be THE most depressing day of the year.

Analysis from the workforce management solutions provider Mitrefinch found that British workers take 53% more sick days in January than any other month of the year.

But the survey shows that workers in the UK took the fourth-lowest amount of days off sick when compared to the rest of Europe in 2018, with an average of 4.4 days.

Switzerland topped the charts when it came to excellent attendance with its workers taking just 1.6 days of sick leave on average. Ukraine, with 4.1 days, and Malta on 4.2 days complete the top three.

However, Bulgarian employees were found most likely to call in sick, taking on average 22 days off per year, workers in Germany didn’t fare too much better taking 18.3 days.