Mariano Rajoy was sworn in as Spanish Prime Minister just before Christmas and pledged to meet EU imposed budget targets for 2012/13 of reducing his country's deficit to 4.4 percent of GDP this year from an estimated 6 percent in 2011/12

Then he saw the books.

Then the EU's economists forecast a recession throughout the euro zone including a prediction that Spain's economy would shrink by more than 1 percent in 2012.

As Britain prepares to mark Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee in June there will be many comparative studies to mark the changes to the country over the last 60 years but none is likely to match the power of the survey published today by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. The CIPD is an international association for HR professionals and compiles statistics for its members.

In stark and unsentimental numbers it looks at British work life early in the Queen's reign and today.

The total number of Britons in work has risen from 23 million in 1959 to 29 million today. Sounds good. But breaking the numbers down further things aren't quite so rosy.

In 1959, 96 percent of working age men were employed. Only 4 percent worked part-time. Today, 75 percent of working age men are employed, 26 percent of them part-time.

EU leaders met in Brussels yesterday. By their standards things went well. Contentious pre-summit issues were kicked aside - in this case, Germany did not push for the right to install a budget czar in Greece. Agreement was reached on a new fiscal compact for the euro zone, although the details of what was agreed were left for later. A lot of money was pledged, enough to make a person wonder where it will come from given how indebted many European governments are.