Even as economic analysts continue to debate whether the recession is actually on in the United States, job losses are rising across industries as the impact of Wall Street Crisis spills over to the Main Street.

A recent report from the consulting firm Watson Wyatt has revealed that in the next twelve months around a quarter of US employers are expected to bring about lay offs. As many as 760,000 jobs have already been lost till September this year according to figures revealed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While the recent finance crisis has affected industries across the economy, some sectors seem to be more vulnerable than others when it comes to lay offs. The housing sector had been the first to face impact of the mortgage meltdown last year but now the job losses are expected to go beyond mortgage lenders and home builders to commercial real-estate and real-estate agencies.

Among other sectors which face the greatest risk of job cuts are finance, retail, publishing, auto and travel. While finance firms are being forced to reorganize and consolidate in the wake of the market crisis, retailers are being hurt by the continued fall in consumer spending. Auto makers have seen some of the worst sales in recent times and airlines are still grappling with low passenger counts. all these trends will compel companies to take restructuring steps in an attempt to cut costs.

The British Prime Minister has asked the oil-rich Gulf states to bail out struggling economies by contributing to IMF reserves, in exchange of which they would have definite say in future global economic policies.

Speaking at a breakfast address on Sunday, British PM Gordon Brown told top business leaders from Gulf states that oil-rich countries had an important role to play in the global economic order of the future. as part of their role as potential leaders, they must come forward to contribute to the International Monetary Fund so that the financial crisis could be prevented from spreading further and distressed economies could be bailed out.

Currently the International Monetary Fund comprises of dominant Western economies like the United States and other members of the Group of Seven nations. Experts on Middle Eastern affairs point out that Gulf states are not to keen on contributing to the IMF which they see as oriented towards maintaining the dominance of a Western economic order.

Prime Minister Brown further added in his address that it was in everybody’s interest to have stability in oil prices. Brown had earlier come under criticism from some oil-producing states for objecting to OPEC ‘s decision to cut supply of oil as a way of raising prices.

Work at factories of Boeing Co is set to resume after Machinists union workers voted to end their strike which has been on since September.

Striking workers are expected to return to the Boeing manufacturing plants from Sunday evening after ratifying a contract on Saturday with the commercial airplane manufacturer. 74% of members of the union which represents around 2700 workers at plants in Washington state, Oregon and Kansas, voted in favour of the deal five days after the two sides virtually agreed on it and the union leaders approved its proposals.

Boeing is the world’s second-largest commercial aircraft maker and is headquartered in Chicago. since September 6 this year the company had been forced to shut down many of its plants due to striking workers who demanded a share in the company’s profits among other things. Members of the union include painters, electricians, mechanics and other production workers who have lost an average of $7000 in base pay ever since the strike took off in September.

The long strike has proved expensive for the company as well. Industry experts believe that the strike has cost Boeing an estimated $100 million a day in deferred revenue and production delays on its much-anticipated line of next generation passenger jets.

Caltex Australia Ltd, announced on Monday that it was cutting its full year earnings outlook on falling values of Australian dollar as well as crude oil.

the largest oil refiner in Australia said that current estimates of net profits for 2008 stood between AS$115 million and AS$145 million. This estimate takes into account foreign exchange losses and marks a fall from the figures of 2007 which stood at AS$444 million. However excluding losses due to unfavourable foreign exchange conditions, Caltex estimates that its net profits for 2008 calendar would fall between AS$315 million and AS$345 million which is still significantly lower from last year’s profits of AS$675 million

Caltex also announced that the primary reason for a revision of profit forecasts was due to the weakening Australian dollar which would reduce the company’s operating profit by as much as AS$200 million. This estimate however excluded the impact of changes in crude oil prices.

However the company added that its debt had increased to AS$900 million at the close of October on account of restricted cash flow from its refining operations which has been further accentuated by low refining margins.

While Caltex Australia has been forced to lower its full year profit forecast for 2008, oil companies in US have posted record profits for the third quarter driven by historically high crude prices this summer.

Federal regulators in US have approved the anti-muscarinic agent Toviaz(R), known in generic terms as fesoterodine fumarate, for the treatment of symptoms associated with overactive bladder.

UCB Group announced last Friday that the US Food and Drug Administration had cleared the use of Toviaz(R) extended release tablets in the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB) with symptoms of urinary incontinency, urgency and urinary frequency. Even though Toviaz(R) is structurally similar to Pfizer’s OAB medication Detrol (R), the 4 mg and 8 mg doses of the former allows greater flexibility of dosage so that treatment can be optimized according to each patient’s response and tolerability.

UCB, a Brussels, Belgium-based bio-pharmaceutical company also announced that it will be entitled to receive royalties on the combined sales of Toviaz(R) as well as Detrol (R) from Pfizer. After the details of the settlement are ironed out, UCB also expects to receive a milestone payment from Pfizer.

In April 2006, New York-based Pfizer acquired sole worldwide rights to Toviaz(R) from Schwarz Pharma, now a part of UCB group. The drug is already approved for sale in the EU and was launched by Pfizer in mid-2008. currently UCB employs around 12000 people in over 40 countries and in 2007 had a turnover of 3.6 billion euros.