Good and bad news on jobs

Goodrich Actuation, on Stafford Road, is boosting its 700-strong workforce by 20 per cent to cope with new work on the F-35 Lighting 11 jet fighter, the Airbus A380 super-jumbo and the Boeing 787 passenger plane.

It is one of the biggest boosts to manufacturing and engineering in the area in recent years.

But the German firm that owns Thomson Holidays revealed today it was axing 2,600 jobs in the UK as part of Europe-wide cuts.

Parent company TUI owns the former Lunn Poly chain of 780 travel agent shops, including branches in Wolverhampton, Bilston, Darlaston and Walsall, all now rebranded as Thomson. No details have been released today of where the job cuts will fall.

And around 1,000 British Gas workers in Oldbury are braced for bad news after parent company Centrica announced 1,300 jobs would go nationwide in "streamlining" and cost-cutting moves.

British Gas is cutting 700 posts at its Residential Energy headquarters at Stockley Park business park, near Heathrow Airport, with staff moving to Staines in Surrey.

A further 340 jobs are going from British Gas Services and 270 more from with the group's corporate structure.

A British Gas spokesman said there were no further details about where jobs would go.

Around 1,000 people work at the British Gas offices at Birchley Island, at Oldbury. Most are employed in a major call centre at the site but the Oldbury workforce also includes electrical service staff and support workers.

The news of the cuts come as Centrica revealed British Gas had lost nearly one million customers this year.

By Simon Penfold