Demand high for skilled tourism workers

Just under half of New Zealand tourism businesses are struggling to recruit the skilled people they need. And they expect their hiring needs to increase in the near future. But can they pay staff what they’re worth?

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More transactions in July but card spending flat

Electronic transactions increased slightly last month but the value of total transactions was flat, with fuel expenditure tumbling for a third month. Statistics New Zealand’s latest card spending figures showed Kiwis spent $5.3 billion (seasonally adjusted) in July, with retail’s share of the pie continuing to grow.

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OECD points to slowdown in global economies

Confirming what most already knew, the OECD says economic activity is slowing in most member countries as well as major-non member economies. The think-tank said its composite leading indicators (CLIs) for June pointed to a slowdown for Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Brazil, China and India.

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Chrome outpaces all other other browsers, study shows

What’s the fastest browser of all? Chrome can claim that title after a project which tested load times in the “real world” of desktop users. The data, collected over a one-month time frame, captured the results of 1.86 billion individual measurements on more than 200 websites.

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Innovation of the day: The feather duster

The story goes that a farmer took a bundle of turkey feathers into a broom factory in Iowa in 1870, and asked if they could be made into a brush. But E E Hoag stole the farmer’s thunder and invented the first feather duster; the Hoag Duster Company was founded in 1874.

Do you have an innovation to share? Enter the Innovator Awards and you could be up in lights.

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