Image source, Smart Energy GB

A key IT project at the heart of the UK's national smart meter roll-out programme is facing further delays.

The government has confirmed that the communications infrastructure which links smart meters to energy suppliers will not be ready until the autumn. The system was due to be switched on on Wednesday.

The government says the system, which automatically sends meter readings to energy suppliers, is now due to go live at the end of September. Read more here

Consumer bodies including Citizens Advice are concerned about the delays.

More on today's jobs figures, and the news that the number of self-employed workers rose by 257,000 to 4.79 million in the three months to June.

IPSE, the Association for Independent Professionals and the Self Employed, represents self- employed people, including freelancers, contractors, consultants and independent professionals, says self-employment has grown strongly this year and it looks like the trend will continue. 

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Quarterly profits at US retailer Target fell are down nearly 10% following a slump in clothing sales. 

Net profit for the three months to 30 July slipped to $680m (£522m), while total sales fell 7.2% to $16.1bn.

Like-for-like sales were down 1.1% - slightly worse than expected.

Resolution Foundation chief economist Matthew Whittaker tweets:

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We told you earlier on that Cisco Systems could be cutting as many as 14,000 jobs worldwide. Such a move could affect many in the UK given that the US company employs about 5,000 people in cities including London, Manchester and Edinburgh.

The cuts are expected to be announced in the coming weeks, although many have been offered early retirement packages, it has been reported. 

However, recent announcements appear to point to UK expansion. Last summer, Cisco committed to investing more than $1bn (£768m) in UK digital education and skills projects over the following three to five years.

In December, the company opened new offices in central London for about 200 workers in cloud technology, adding it planned to expand its operations in the city three-fold by 2017. 

It followed the acquisition of two private UK companies, Acano and Portcullis, involved in conferencing software and cyber security services. 

Cisco was unavailable for comment.

Business reporter Leisha Chi in Singapore tweets:

ONS assistant director Richard Tonkin tweets:

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Now this is not quite what we expected the boss of Goldman Sachs to tell summer interns at what is perhaps the world's most famous (or infamous, if you prefer) investment bank. 

So what advice would Lloyd Blankfein give, external to would give young people? “Chill out” was his answer.

“There’s not a sport or activity in life where you have a really hard grip, you actually do better,” Blankfein said. “Whether it’s baseball or golf or kicking a ball, the looser you are, the further the thing goes… If you’re tight, you’re not necessarily better.”

Mr Blankfein (pictured) also advises young people to read history books rather than those on markets and economics.

“You can see that all these people who did really great things failed six times, or didn’t get going until they were much older,” he said. “I think that’s much more instructive and educational.”

He claims not to have worried about his career path until his late twenties. We're glad to see he landed on his feet.

Former FT hack Brian Groom notes:

Anthony Reuben
BBC Reality Check

Today's unemployment figures are based on a survey – it’s a very big survey, but it’s still a survey, so the figures are not precise.

The best estimate is that unemployment has fallen by 52,000, but the Office for National Statistics says it is 95% certain that figure is right by plus or minus 77,000. So the actual figure is somewhere between a fall of 129,000 and a rise of 25,000.

Because the ONS is not 95% sure that unemployment has fallen, it means the fall is not statistically significant.

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The Times reports, external that the London borough of Wandsworth has become the first council to take action to protect pubs from redevelopment. 

It has removed “permitted development rights” from 120 pubs in the borough, preventing them from being demolished or converted into shops or homes without permission.

Some pubs that have already closed have been given protection and the council said it hoped this would give “an added incentive to the owners to bring them back”.

Wandsworth said it hoped that other local authorities would follow suit.

Ben Brettell, senior economist at Hargreaves Lansdown, gives his view on today's unemployment figures: 

"The post-referendum reality will gradually become clear over the next few months. Forward-looking surveys, for example PMI, have indicated that Brexit has delivered a confidence shock. However, it’s still early days in terms of hard data. Surveys are driven by sentiment, and can therefore overreact. The dramatic fall in confidence may not ultimately be borne out by activity, and today’s claimant count number is a tentative sign that things might not turn out as bad as many predicted."

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Ride-hailing app Uber has launched legal action against new rules in London that require drivers to take a written English test.

Last year, following months of demonstrations by black cab drivers the body responsible for transport in the capital, Transport for London, launched a consultation on proposals aimed at restricting the way private taxi firms operate. 

Under the new rules drivers will have to have both English reading and writing skills, private hire firms will have to have a London call centre and drivers will have to have appropriate insurance for all vehicles.

Uber plans to challenge four of TfL's measures in the High Court.

It says objects to the requirement for written English tests for private hire drivers,which it says, has only emerged in the last few weeks. 

"The goalposts have moved at the last minute and new rules are now being introduced that will be bad for both drivers and tech companies like Uber," said its London general manager, Tom Elvidge.

However, Uber says it has always supported the need for spoken English skills and still does.

It's also challenging the need for part-time private hire drivers to have "costly" commercial insurance in months when they're not working, as well as the requirement for it to notify TfL of changes to its app.

The requirement for a London call centre will also be challenged. 

Minicab operator Addison Lee says it "deplores Uber's attempts to remove the new private hire regulations aimed at improving passenger safety". 

It has writen to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, criticising Uber's bid to water down the new regulations. 

TfL said it would defend its proposals in court. "These have been introduced to enhance public safety when using private hire services and we are determined to create a vibrant taxi and private hire market," a spokesman said. 

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Zimbabwean police have fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds protesting against central bank plans to re-introduce local banknotes, Reuters reports. 

About 100 people marched through the streets of Harare towards the central bank before riot police broke up the demonstration. 

Zimbabweans fear that the central bank's plan to introduce banknotes in October to ease the dollar shortage could open the door to rampant money printing, as happened in 2008 when inflation hit 500 billion per cent, wiping out people's savings and pensions.  

Samuel Tombs, chief UK Economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, says the 7,000 fall in the three-month average for job vacancies between April and July is smaller than the 20,000 decline that would be expected if the UK economy was shrinking.

"Still, the vacancy measure is a three-month average, so it is not a 'clean' post-referendum sample. We expect bigger declines in vacancies over the coming months," he says. 

"Surprisingly, the claimant count measure of unemployment fell by 8,600 month-to-month in July. But July’s data were never likely to show a sharp deterioration, because the data were collated just three weeks after the vote and employment laws prevent firms from making workers immediately redundant."

Times home correspondent Richard Ford tweets:

Scott Bowman, UK economist at Capital Economics, comments:

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Sterling is up a touch at $1.3058 following the unemployment figures today and firmer than $1.3029 before the data was released. 

The euro eased to 86.35 pence from 86.47 pence, down 0.1% on the day.