And what would you do with a spare 25 Billion Euros . Thats the question facing the irish Government Today as it delivers its budget following a huge Tax Windfall from Tech Firms. Live from london, this is business today. Im lukwesa burak. We start in the us where in the last 30 minutes tens of thousands of East And Gulf Coast Port workers have started striking for the first time in nearly 50 years. This comes after the international longshoremen s association and the us Maritime Alliance were unable to reach an agreement on the terms of their contract. The strikes will halt trade in a wide range of goods and disrupt the Countrys Economy just as we enter the final weeks before the president ial election. Our North America Business correspondent Ritika Gupt the two major sticking points between international longshoreman s association and the us Maritime Alliance are wages and automation for the workers are unhappy with the current contract which spanned the pandemic and dockworkers st
Lets start in the us where its been a tumultuous week on the markets following the publication of a series of reports on the state of the Labour Market. On thursday, one of the latest of these reports showed private employers in the us posting their smallest monthly hiring growth since january 2021, with just under 100,000 new positions. On wednesday, government data showed Job Openings dropped to a 3. 5 year low injuly with 7. 67 million vacancies. And later today, all eyes will be on the Monthlyjobs Survey of employers and households. Last month, the Labor Department reported the Unemployment Rate had hit 4. 3 injuly up from 3. 5 a year earlier. This report is one of the most important gauges of the state of The Worlds largest economy and it is coming at a critical time with the president ial campaign under way. So what might be in store . Joining me now is kyle handley, associate professor of economics at the university of california san diego. Every so much apprehension, you just h
the country has set a modest target for economic growth this year of around 5%, as it kicked off the annual session of its national people s congress, which is poised to implement the biggest government shake up in a decade. last year, successive strict lockdowns slowed growth in china. official figures show the world s second largest economy grew by 3% last year, which was way below the government target of 5.5% and its slowest for decades. now, compared to many economies, a 5% growth target sounds very positive but as janet mui, head of market analysis at brewin dolphin, explained china is an exception. i think economists were pretty disappointed at this conservative growth forecast, as you mentioned. it is actually a high figure for the developed market, but china is still an emerging market that should be growing strongly. so this is slower than expected, because i think in the previous year the government has missed this gdp growth target and i don t think that they