Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Former BP boss Bernard Looney joins US data centre start-up
A former boss of BP who left the oil company amid scandal a little more than a year ago is attempting to revive his career after he was hired to chair a data centre company in the United States.
The appointment of Bernard Looney, 54, to the board of Prometheus Hyperscale is his first job since he sent shock waves through corporate Britain with his abrupt exit from BP.
He resigned as chief executive of the FTSE 100 oil major in September last year after it emerged that he had failed to be fully transparent with the company’s board about his past personal relationships with colleagues.
UK wants to hire EU negotiator to 'reset' relations
The UK government is hiring a new negotiator to help deliver a “reset” of relations with Europe.
The job posting says the role will lead the government's relationship with the European Union and negotiations with the EU "on key UK interests", with mentions of trade, security and border policy.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has committed to a “reset” of relations between the UK and EU, and previously said he would seek a better deal on trade than the one negotiated by Boris Johnson in late 2020.
Financial blues: half of Scots feel poorer than they did a year ago
Nearly half of Scots say they are worse off than a year ago, with almost two thirds believing the country’s economic conditions will continue to decline.
The latest quarterly survey for the David Hume Institute, an independent think tank, and the pollster Diffley Partnership has found a bleak public outlook on the economy.
Since August there has been a six percentage-point rise in people feeling that their finances have worsened in the past year, with nearly three in ten admitting that they have lost sleep over money.
People like Farage are not our core customer, says Jaguar boss
The boss of Jaguar has suggested people like Nigel Farage are not important to the carmaker’s vision as he said it wanted to pursue a “completely different audience” to its traditional customers.
Rawdon Glover, managing director of Jaguar, hit back at comments made by the Reform MP who last week criticised the carmaker’s controversial rebrand amid concerns it is seeking to ditch its traditional male customers in favour of a more progressive image.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Mr Glover said: “People love us for our history and our heritage, but that has not led to huge commercial success.
Ministers target prisoners to fill UK’s labour shortages
Ministers believe that tens of thousands more prisoners can fill labour shortages by targeting them with more jobs support and training while behind bars.
Prisoners will be among millions of people set to get extra career support in sweeping changes to the welfare state in a white paper to be published on Tuesday.
The plans, titled “Get Britain Working”, will cite statistics showing that less than a third of prison leavers find employment within six months of release, while the rate of employment for criminals serving non-custodial sentences in the community is still less than half.
TikTok dreams of bright Christmas amid live shopping boom
TikTok expects its highest Christmas sales this year as its once-struggling livestream shopping feature takes off in the UK.
TikTok Shop enables users to buy products while watching videos from social media influencers and brands, as well as on live broadcasts on its in-app marketplace. The Chinese-owned company takes a commission on sales made through the platform.
The platform’s ecommerce division, launched in the UK in 2021 as its first market outside of Asia, was not an immediate success. It initially failed to meet sales targets and was mired by reports of a culture clash with its employees in London over unrealistic targets and expectations to work more than 12 hours a day.