Nearly one million foreign citizens were granted permanent residency in Spain last year, bringing the official total, not counting illegal immigration, up to almost four million non-nationals residing in the country. According to government figures, Moroccans are the biggest immigrant population in Spain with around 650,000 of its citizens living there, followed by Romanians (604,000), Ecuadorians (396,000), Columbians (254,000) and British citizens (199,000). People from EU member countries made up 39% of Spain’s total foreign population in 2007, followed by South Americans (30%) and Africans (21%).

The Spanish tourist board believes that tourism is the driving force behind its country’s rising immigration and revealed that a record 59.2 million tourists hit Spanish shores in 2007 – a rise of 1.7% y-o-y.

The board’s statistics also showed that the Costa del Sol is still the most popular destination for tourists and that the Andalucian region also grew in popularity. It noted that UK citizens were still Spain’s biggest tourist group accounting for 27.5% of all foreign visitors, however, arrivals from North America have risen by 22% in 2007, totalling 1.1 million tourists from the continent.

Low cost airlines accounted for a significant proportion of carriers travelling to Spain, flying 24 million tourists to the country in 2007 – a 34% rise y-o-y. Ryanair led the way carrying 5.4 million passengers followed by easyJet with 4.2 million. Malaga was the principal entry point accounting for 3.6 million passengers travelling via budget airlines, while six out of every ten tourists ended up holidaying on the Costa del Sol.

Real average weekly earnings fell by 0.5 percent from December 2007 to January 2008 after seasonal adjustment, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. A 0.3 percent decrease in average weekly hours and a 0.4 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers were partially offset by a 0.2 percent increase in average hourly earnings.

Data on average weekly earnings are collected from the payroll reports of private non-farm establishments. Earnings of both full-time and part-time workers holding production or non-supervisory jobs are included.

Before adjustment for seasonal change and inflation, average weekly earnings were $592.74 in January 2008, compared with $573.14 a year earlier.

January 2008 earnings of production and non-supervisory workers
on private non-farm payrolls not seasonally adjusted

exchange rate used $1.00 = £0.504

Britain is experiencing the worst “brain drain” of any country as highly qualified professionals settle abroad, according to a study by the OECD. Record numbers of Britons are leaving - many of them doctors, teachers and engineers - in the biggest exodus from the UK for almost 50 years.

The telegraph.uk reported that there are now 3.247 million British-born people living abroad, of whom more than 1.1 million are highly skilled university graduates. No other country is losing so many qualified people. Britain has now lost more than one in 10 of its most skilled citizens, while overall only Mexico has had more people emigrate.

The figures, based on official records from more than 220 countries, will alarm Gordon Brown as tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money is spent on educating graduates. The cost of training a junior doctor, for example, is £250,000.

The most popular destinations are English-speaking countries such as Australia, America, Canada and New Zealand and holiday areas including France and Spain. Almost 60 per cent of those leaving take jobs, although hundreds of thousands of retired people live abroad.

The motivations for leaving Britain were not studied. However, high house prices and taxes and poor climate are frequently cited.

A spokesman for the Paris-based OECD said last night: “British people have lots of opportunities to move and work abroad so very highly-skilled people are travelling around. It is seen by many British people as part of their personal development to have some experience abroad.”

Britain’s exodus is far higher than any of the OECD’s other 29 members. Germany has lost only 860,000 highly-skilled workers, America 410,000 and France 370,000.

Danny Sriskandarajah, a migration expert at the IPPR think-tank, said: “There is a long-term trend of British people lured abroad by a slightly better lifestyle. They are actively targeted by countries such as Australia and New Zealand.”

The emigration was leading to a rapid change in British society as large numbers of highly-skilled immigrants moved to this country to replace those leaving, he said.

“Britain has been lucky - although it has lost substantial numbers of people, it has attracted more than a million skilled immigrants to replace them. If they stop coming then that would be a problem.”

Figures from the Office for National Statistics last year, suggested that 207,000 Britons - one every three minutes - left in 2006. The emigration rate is at its highest since just after the Second World War.

New Zealanders are being lured to Australia in record numbers and the latest wage figures partially explain why according to a report from stuff.co.nz. Australian full-time workers earned an average of $A1162 ($NZ1350) per week in the year to November, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures. That compares with the New Zealand average weekly income of $NZ667 from the last Statistics New Zealand survey.

Better pay is cited as one of the major reasons for the increasing drift of New Zealanders across the Tasman to Australia. According to recent Statistics New Zealand figures, the trans-Tasman outflow of permanent and long-term New Zealand migrants exceeded the inflow of Australians by almost 28,000 last year, the highest since 1988. Last year, 41,634 New Zealand citizens migrated to Australia “permanently or long term”. New Zealand’s net loss increased by 7000 from the previous year.

Australia’s booming mining and construction industries bumped up the nation’s average wage figures. Mining workers are officially Australia’s highest paid employees, taking home an average of nearly $A2000 per week. Construction workers’ wages increased by 10 per cent to an average of $A1222 per week, while property and business services recorded a 9.5 per cent increase to an average of $A1239. Workers in the accommodation, cafe and restaurant industry earned an average of $A849 per week, and the retail industry an average of $A892.

Australian men in full-time employment earned an average of $A1248 a week (up 4.9 percent) and women $A1009 (up 5.2 percent) in the past year.

In New Zealand, the weekly average for all part-time and full-time workers was $NZ832 for men (up 10.4 percent) and $NZ510 for women (up 7.8 per cent).

The real estate boom may be over in Spain, but in some provinces, such as Granada, it isn’t all doom and gloom. Foreign buyers, mainly from Britain and Germany are snapping up one in three properties, and are helping to lift the market during this slow period. Unlike the Spanish buyers, foreign buyers tend not try and push the price of a property down, and trust the professionals to do their job reports homesworldwide.co.uk

A third of all properties sold in the province of Granada are being bought by foreigners, and these are located in areas such as Alpujarra, the Granada coastline, the Lecrin Valley, and the Baza area.

However, it isn’t that sales to foreign buyers have risen sharply over the last few months, more that sales to Spaniards have plummeted, while foreigners continue to buy at more or less the same rate. The proportion of one in three may be higher on the coast though, with many developments aimed exclusively at foreign buyers.

Estate agents have reported that as much as 40 per cent of their properties are sold to foreigners, and the majority are British who are looking for a permanent base, rather than a holiday home. Buyers favour the cortijos (country houses) in the area, and a large proportion of these are owned by foreigners.

Australian housing affordability has sunk so low that the majority of Australians who have yet to take out a mortgage expect that they may never purchase a home, new figures show. The report also shows that many Australians with a mortgage are finding it difficult to meet their mortgage repayments.

Over half of those without a mortgage who took part in a survey by Datamonitor said they expected to never be able to purchase their own home.

Australian Bureau of Statistics’ data showed that Australian house prices rose by 12.3 per cent last year, and budding homeowners also have to contend with higher rents making it very difficult to save. The cost of renting a three-bedroom house rose by an average of 12.6 per cent last year.

The survey found that 15 per cent of mortgagees had no deposit for their main mortgage, and a further eight per cent had a deposit of less than five per cent of the value of the property. Only 34 per cent reported having a deposit of 20 per cent or more.

Meanwhile, many with a mortgage say they expect to continue struggling to meet their repayments for at least the next five years. Some 24 per cent of respondents who had a mortgage said they would find it “quite hard” or “very hard” to maintain their repayments, the survey found. Only 18 per cent said they expected to find it “quite easy” or “very easy” to meet their repayment obligations.

South East Queenslanders subject to level six water restrictions are using an average of 130 litres a day, according to recent daily water use consumption figures. Queensland Water Commission spokesman Gerald Tooth said across the region an average of 408 million litres a day was used across seven days.

“That is up an average of 10 litres per person from last week” Mr Tooth said.

“Despite recent rains the drought is not over and Level 6 Restrictions and Target 140 still apply.”

The combined dam levels of Wivenhoe, North Pine and Somerset are sitting around 37.23 per cent.

“There will be no easing of restrictions until combined dam levels reach 40 per cent, and even then we are only going to be making a small step back,” Mr Tooth said.

“Now is not the time to relax the good habits we have all adopted through the worst drought on record. We are asking everyone to keep to their four minute showers. That’s one thing that won’t be changing when we do start easing restrictions.”

Last week total average daily consumption was 498 million litres per day. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, up until 9am Thursday 14 February 2008 Brisbane City received 38.8mm of rainfall for the last seven days. The average maximum temperature over the last week was 29.1 degrees. This was approximately 0.1 degrees warmer than the previous week.

Meanwhile in Mackay, a town on the coast 600 miles north of Brisbane, has suffered serious flooding. Hundreds of Mackay residents have spent the night in emergency accommodation after their homes were swamped by floodwaters from the biggest downpour to hit the town in 90 years. A total of 624mm fell on Mackay in 10 hours, nearly half the city’s annual rainfall of 1561mm and almost twice as much rain as Brisbane has received so far this year.

The total number of jobs advertised in Australian major newspapers and on the internet rose 1.8 percent in January to an average of 276,969 per week. The increase followed a solid 4.9 percent rise in December. The total number of advertisements in January was 31.9 percent higher than 12 months ago.

There were marked differences between the different channels for advertising jobs.

The number of job advertisements in Australian newspapers declined by 9 percent in January. This followed a 2.4 percent increase in December. In trend terms the number of newspaper job advertisements were 0.5 percent higher than a year ago.

The number of internet job advertisements grew by a solid 2.7 percent in January to average 257,830 per week. In trend terms, internet job advertisements increased by 1.9 percent to be 33.4 percent higher than a year ago.

ANZ’s Head of Australian Economics, Tony Pearson, said: “The continued trend increase in the total number of job advertisements in January suggests the demand for labour remains very healthy. Trend employment growth is strongly, with an additional 268,000 jobs created in 2007. The forward nature of the relationship between the Job Advertisements series and trend employment suggests employment growth will remain solid over coming months. As a result, the current tight labour market conditions are expected to continue well into 2008.”

“One of the stand out features of the Australian economy over the past six months is that economic growth and the demand for labour have remained robust despite a slowing global economy, continued financial market volatility, progressive increases in domestic interest rates and a persistently high Australian dollar. The latest job advertisement figures suggest this healthy performance has continued in the early part of 2008.”

“The fall in newspaper job advertisements in January across all states (but not the two territories) is unusual. We would caution against placing too much weight on one month’s numbers as the monthly data are volatile and can be influenced by changes in the seasonal pattern. For these reasons we tend to focus more on the trend data. To the extent the newspaper data indicate differences in demand for labour between regions across Australia, the trend data over the past few months suggest some easing in demand for labour in Western Australia, with continued solid demand in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory,” Mr Pearson said.

Quotable Value has released January’s figures for New Zealand’s housing market. The average sale price of a house in New Zealand has increased to $390,636 (£158,152) from December’s $388,253 (£157,187). Property values have increased 8.9% over the calander year. New Zealand’s average house prices are not directly comparable with the UK’s because, unlike the UK, the average home in New Zealand is a detached bungalow.

QV spokesperson Blue Hancock said:

“Even though year on year growth is still positive, it has slowed rapidly. This reflects the easing market of the last few months compared to the buoyancy of last spring and summer. If the easing continues we would expect to see growth flatten to the point where there is no annual gain in value. Preliminary analysis suggests that over the past three months there are many areas across new Zealand where the growth in property values is static.”

House Prices in New Zealand
Three Months Ending January 2008

* Assumed exchange rate is £1 = NZ$2.47

Real estate agents and property mangers are urging prospective tenants to be patient as the annual rental crush resurfaces in Perth. President of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, Rob Druitt, said seasonal factors and the low vacancy rate for accommodation was causing stress with many over worked agencies struggling to keep up with enquiries.

“Our members report that the summer rush for rental properties is on again, with many suburbs experiencing strong turnout at viewings and multiple applications for individual tenancies,” Mr Druitt said.

Mr Druitt said the March quarter was traditionally a busy time in the Perth rental sector as people made a fresh start for the year, settled into a new job or relocated for the start of the university calendar.

“The added difficulty we have this year is the skills shortage, with many real estate offices understaffed and a lack of property managers in Western Australia to help ensure efficiency. This is impacting on the turn-around time with applications as busy offices struggle with an overwhelming number of hopeful but anxious tenants. One agency reported more than 185 phone calls about a single property,” Mr Druitt said.

Mr Druitt said it was impractical for property managers to return calls to everyone who makes an enquiry, and so new methods of communication such as bulk text messaging and broadcast emails were being used to advertise home opens.

“Under the circumstances prospective tenants are urged to follow closely the directions of the property manager and to be patient as office staff sort through applications and check references.

“It’s important for both the owner and the tenant that all the documentation is done properly. However where tenants can help greatly is to ensure that application forms are filled out fully and correctly, referees can be easily contacted and the bond money is ready.

“Owners are ideally looking for tenants who can demonstrate security of income, reliable references and that any rental history is positive. The more tenants can do to demonstrate this, the smoother the application process,” Mr Druitt said.

REIWA data currently show that median rents in Perth have climbed to $320 per week, while the vacancy rate has again slipped below 2 per cent.

Increasing numbers of women in the workforce drove New Zealand’s unemployment rate down 0.1 percent to a new record of 3.4 per cent in the December quarter. The New Zealand unemployment rate is at its lowest level since the survey began in March 1986. Statistics New Zealand said the latest survey also recorded the most people in employment and in the labour force, as well as the highest labour force participation rate.

In the December quarter the female unemployment rate decreased to 3.5 percent while the male unemployment rate increased slightly to 3.4 percent.

Employment increased by 23,000 (1.1 percent) to reach 2,173,000 in the December 2007 quarter, the highest level recorded since the survey began. This growth was driven by female employment, while male employment decreased. Over the quarter, full-time employment grew by 26,000 (1.6 percent), and part-time employment dropped by 1,000 (0.2 percent).

New Zealand’s unemployment rate is fifth lowest in the OECD, and compares with 5.5 percent for the whole of the OECD.

The unemployment rate for Maori dropped from 8 percent to 7.3 percent in the December quarter, for Europeans it was down from 2.4 percent to 2.3 percent, and for Pacific peoples it declined from 5.5 percent to 4.7 percent.

A British team has designed a hypersonic passenger aeroplane that could one day fly passengers between Europe and Australia in less than five hours. The A2 plane, designed by Oxfordshire-based Reaction Engines, could carry 300 passengers at a top speed of almost 4,000 mph, five times the speed of sound.

The plane, which at 143 metres long would be about twice the size of the biggest current jets, could fly non-stop for up to 12,500 miles. It would be lighter than current intercontinental planes and designed to operate on liquid hydrogen.

The jet would produce only water vapour and nitrous oxide as exhaust. It’s high-speed would make windows impracticable so flat screen monitors instead would substitute for an actual outside view.

Fares for the four-hour and 40-miute flight to Australia would be comparable with current first-class tickets on standard flights, of around £3,500. The company said the aircraft, which is still at the concept stage, could be operating within 25 years.

Alan Bond, managing director of Reaction Engines, told The Guardian newspaper: “The A2 is designed to leave Brussels international airport, fly quietly and sub-sonically out into the north Atlantic at mach 0.9 before reaching mach 5 across the North Pole and heading over the Pacific to Australia.
The flight time from Brussels to Australia, allowing for air traffic control, would be four hours 40 minutes. It sounds incredible by today’s standards but I don’t see why future generations can’t make day trips to Australasia. Our work shows that it is possible technically; now it’s up to the world to decide if it wants it.”

The LAPCAT (Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies) project is being funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) to encourage companies to push the boundaries of commercial air travel using technology more commonly associated with space travel.

The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia said today’s lift in the official cash rate by the Reserve Bank was not surprising but was disappointing. REIWA President Rob Druitt said the WA property market was ‘cool and stabilising’ after the boom and did not require any further brakes applied to it.

“The average mortgage in Western Australia is now $261,000, so today’s rate rise will add around $12 per week, or $600 per year, to a typical mortgage,” Mr Druitt said.

However, Mr Druitt said most West Australians were in a better position to absorb the rate rise than home buyers on the east coast.

“With our stronger economy and higher than average wages and salaries, most West Australians will largely take this rate rise in their stride and simply rein in some consumer spending from other areas of their lives,” Mr Druitt said.

Mr Druitt said where the rise will be more keenly felt is by first home buyers and renters.

“People trying to enter the housing market for the first time will find this added cost difficult and they’ll need to factor that into their purchasing power and borrowings.

“The rate rise may also impact on the rental system, placing some upward pressure on rents as landowners try to recoup some of their additional costs,” Mr Druitt said.

Mr Druitt said that despite a series of rate rises in recent times West Australian homebuyers were still financially in front having achieved strong capital growth over the last few years.

South Australia, four times the size of Britain but with an ageing population of just 1.5 million, is to launch an aggressive advertising campaign aimed at attracting a new generation of British immigrants. With slogans directly attacking life in the UK, such as “Sod London house prices” and “Screw working in Staines, hello Adelaide“ creators of the South Australian government advertisements are aware some people may be offended.

Bill Muirhead, an Adelaide-born founder partner in the M & C Saatchi advertising firm who has been appointed agent-general of South Australia, said he was aware the campaign might create a few enemies. “It might appear we are being rude, but a lot of things in Britain aren’t good,” he told The Times.

“We went for Staines because it sounds nasty … I don’t suppose the mayor of Staines is going to be too happy, but it could easily have been Slough or Croydon.”

The ad campaign promises young people can buy a four-bedroom detached house on the beach with room for a swimming pool and “barbie” for just £200,000.

In 2006 more than 200,000 Britons left the country to live abroad, and South Australia wants to attract another 5,000 a year.

Professionals such as chefs, butchers, physiotherapists, dentists and dermatologists will be targeted. There is no upper age limit, but a points based system will in effect bar anyone over 45.

Economists predict the number of Australians likely to default on their home loans this year will increase because of rising interest rates, massive credit card debt and falling house prices. Research by JP Morgan and Fujitsu Consulting quoted in Fairfax publications suggests 750,000 home owners will be hit by ‘mortgage stress’ in the coming months.

It is anticipated up to 300,000 of those will default on the loan and could have their homes repossessed.

Fujitsu Consulting spokesman Martin North says it is not just working class families who are finding it hard to make their mortgage repayments. “It’s spilled out into into the families of middle Australia, but also were seeing it beginning to emerge in some of the high net-worth groups as well,” he said.

JP Morgan spokesman Brian Johnson says one of the factors driving the problem is massive credit card debt.

“The fact is, the average household in Australia [spends] over three months of its disposable income on credit card debt,” he said.

“The other thing is that in Australia we only have a system of negative credit reports, which means the credit bureaus only capture people who are defaulting on their credit card.

“There’s no data captured about the actual total dollar value of debt.”

Queensland is struggling to improve literacy and numeracy in the middle years of primary school.

Figures show that almost one in five of the state’s 10-year-olds fails to achieve minimum standards in reading. A report into literacy and numeracy stated that these children were falling short of Australian benchmarks and would find it “difficult to progress satisfactorily at school”.

The figures are revealed in the latest Australian results of literacy and numeracy tests given each year to Australian children in Years 3, 5 and 7.

While Queensland Year 5 students recorded improved results from the previous year, only 81.2 per cent of them achieved the national benchmark for reading, while 85.4 per cent achieved the numeracy benchmark.

By contrast, 90 per cent of New South Wales’ Year 5 students and 89.9 per cent of Victorian students reached the Australian reading benchmark. Only the Northern Territory recorded a worse result than Queensland.

For Year 5 numeracy, 92.6 per cent of New South Wales’ students and 94.9 per cent of Victorian students achieved the benchmark.

The results – from tests taken in 2006 – also show that numeracy standards among Year 7 students were also slipping but reading and writing results for Year 3 students were close to Australia’s best.

Education Minister Rod Welford said the Queensland results were consistent with previous years and that “our state figures tend to be lower in Year 5, OK in Year 3 and recovering in Year 7″.

The results showed that up to 90 per cent of students and, in some areas, more than 90 per cent, achieved the benchmarks, he said.

However, only 79.8 per cent of Queensland Year 7 students achieved the numeracy benchmark, down from 83.2 per cent in 2005.

Mr Welford said he would be concerned if the slide was the start of a trend. “I would urge teachers that if they see a student struggling in maths they make sure they get the attention they need,” he said.

Mr Welford defended Queensland’s poor showing in some of the test results compared with other states. “I would say to people who are obsessed with interstate comparisons that Queensland has a much larger proportion of schools in remote and disadvantaged areas,” he said.

The number of people who will retire abroad is set to rise to 3.3million by 2050, a survey has suggested. The strongest reason for leaving is to find a better quality of life, followed by the standard and cost of living in the UK. Nine in ten of expats surveyed said they had a better quality of life and six out of ten did not plan to return.

Canada was rated the best country to emigrate to, followed by New Zealand and Portugal.

The survey predicts by 2025, 1.8 million Britons could spend their later years abroad, which may increase to 3.3 million by 2050.

Over three quarters, 76%, of respondents said they feel homesick some or all of the time, missing family and friends, traditions and culture and the British sense of humour. One in five expats said their sense of being British has diminished, suggesting that expats begin to feel less British the longer they have been living out of the UK.

Canada scored first place with a score of 63.95 out of 80, with high rankings for housing, the natural environment and the availability of consumer goods.

Dave Isley, from NatWest international personal banking who commissioned the survey, said: “There are a number of different reasons why people relocate abroad, to be nearer to family and friends, to start a new job, or as the study demonstrates, to increase their quality of life. “This is only likely to increase in the future, with many more taking the decision to spend their twilight years sipping sangria in Spain, Chianti in Italy or eating maple syrup and pancakes in Canada.”

United States non-farm payroll employment, at 138.1 million, and the unemployment rate, at 4.9 percent, were essentially unchanged in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. The small January movement in non-farm payroll employment reflected declines in construction and manufacturing and job growth in health care. Average hourly earnings rose by 4 cents, or
0.2 percent, over the month.

Unemployment
The number of unemployed persons (7.6 million) and the unemployment rate (4.9 percent) were
essentially unchanged in January. Over the month, the unemployment rates for all major worker groups showed little or no change: adult men (4.4 percent), adult women (4.2 percent), teenagers (18.0 percent), Asians (3.2 percent), whites (4.4 percent), blacks (9.2 percent), and Hispanics (6.3 percent).

Industry Payroll Employment
In January, total non-farm payroll employment was about unchanged after edging up in
November (60,000) and December (82,000). In 2007, payroll employment increased by an average of
95,000 jobs per month. Both construction and manufacturing employment continued to decline in January,and health care employment rose.

Construction employment decreased by 27,000 in January and has fallen by 284,000 since its peak in September 2006. Over-the-month job losses occurred in residential building (-10,000) and residential speciality trade contractors (-18,000).

Manufacturing lost 28,000 jobs in January. Over the month, small declines occurred among many
durable and nondurable goods industries. Manufacturing has lost 269,000 jobs over the past 12 months.
In the service-providing sector, health care employment continued to grow in January (27,000), about
in line with average monthly gains over the prior 12 months. Within health care, over-the-month job gains occurred in ambulatory health care services (14,000), which includes offices of physicians, and in hospitals (10,000).

Food services employment continued to trend upward in January. From November through January,
food services added an average of 16,000 jobs per month, compared with an average gain of 28,000 jobs for the 12-month period ending in October.

Employment in professional and technical services was little changed in January following a large increase (49,000) in the prior month. In 2007, job growth in this sector totalled 335,000.

In January, employment in financial activities was about unchanged as commercial banking lost 4,000
jobs, and securities, commodity contracts, and investments added 5,000 jobs. Since reaching a peak in
December 2006, employment in financial activities has declined by 99,000.

In January, employment in both wholesale and retail trade was little changed. Within retail trade, employment in food and beverage stores was up by 12,000 over the month.

Weekly Hours

In January, the average workweek for production and non supervisory workers on private non-farm
Payrolls fell by 0.1 hour to 33.7 hours, seasonally adjusted. The manufacturing workweek was unchanged at 41.1 hours, and factory overtime was unchanged at 4.0 hours.

The index of aggregate weekly hours of production and non supervisory workers on non-farm payrolls
declined by 0.3 percent in January to 107.5 (2002=100). The manufacturing index was unchanged at 93.7.

Hourly and Weekly Earnings
Average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory workers on private non-farm payrolls rose
by 4 cents, or 0.2 percent, in January to $17.75, seasonally adjusted. This followed a gain of 7 cents in
December. Average weekly earnings fell by 0.1 percent in January to $598.18. Over the year, average
hourly earnings rose by 3.7 percent and weekly earnings rose by 3.4 percent.

A British couple living in Almeria, Spain could see their home demolished to make way for a new rail link. The Telegraph has reported that Richard and Wendy Kaleta were given planning permission to build their luxuary home in Turre, on the Costa Almeria, despite the proposal four months earlier of a rail link on the land they had bought. Now they and three other British couples have been told their properties will be demolished, with no compensation being offered for their buildings.

The Kaletas decided to sell their home in Southampton in May 2001 and retire to Spain. Their new four-bedroom villa was completed in Jan 2003.

According to the local planning office, the proposed route of the AVE high-speed rail link was made public in Dec 2001, four months before the Kaletas were given permission to build. The project was finally approved last autumn and it wasn’t until last year that the Kaletas learned of the plans.

The couple feel they were let down when they bought the land from a local estate agent, who is also a former mayor of the town.

Four out of the twelve houses in the rural development on the outskirts of Turre are to be demolished to make way for the rail link. The remaining houses will find themselves living in close proximity to rail tracks where trains will travel at speeds in excess of 155mph.

“We have been told that we will probably be offered compensation for the cost of the land only and not the value of the property itself…” said Mr Kaleta. “It really is heartbreaking to watch our dream turn sour. We could end up with nothing.”

A survey shows that almost 80% of adults who have emigrated from the UK are happy with their new life overseas. This compares with 51.8% of respondents who were satisfied with their earlier life in the UK.

The happiest people surveyed had moved to Spain, with 91% of emigrants saying that they were happy or very happy with their lives there. New Zealand emigrants were also relatively happy, with 88% of respondents satisfied with their new life. Canadian and Australian emigrants followed close behind on 86.4% and 84.2% respectively.

The main reason given for having moved was to gain a better quality of life (35%).

Others were looking for a new experience or adventure (12%) and a new job or relocation (9%).

According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of UK citizens opting to move abroad permanently increased to a record 207,000 in 2006.

Other findings from the survey were:

• 84.02% of people were happy with their new cost of living
• 80.63% of people were happy with the career opportunities in their new country
• 88.99% of people were happy with the food in their new country

The Happiness Survey looked at the results of 1,122 people (40% male and 60% of female). 25% of people interviewed were under 35, 60% were between 35 and 50, and 15% were 50+.