Unemployment

[mypost]

The 19k is not a one-off seasonal thing this time. Some are students signing on, some are construction workers, some are retail, some are admin, some are manufacturing personnel, and others. There is a slight increase in unemployment during the summer months, but it tends to be a phase rather than a trend of breaking records as it is now.

When you see governments urging wage restraint, and announcing cutbacks in mid-summer (effectively an emergency mini-budget), you know the economy is in trouble.

[GavinZac]

The 19k is not a one-off seasonal thing this time. Some are students signing on, some are construction workers, some are retail, some are admin, some are manufacturing personnel, and others. There is a slight increase in unemployment during the summer months, but it tends to be a phase rather than a trend of breaking records as it is now.

When you see governments urging wage restraint, and announcing cutbacks in mid-summer (effectively an emergency mini-budget), you know the economy is in trouble.

Obviously when you have job losses and uni leavers combined you're going to have high figures. "record breaking" it is not, unless you consider "highest in the last few years" a record.

Our economy is hurting, just like everyone else's that was dependent upon the USA. I very much doubt it has come as a shock and I'm pretty certain it was one of the issues in last year's election.

[monutdfc]

The figures are all seasonally-adjusted.
The seasonally-adjusted increase was 10k whilst the actual increase was 19k.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...207406471.html

Between May and June there was a rise of 19,055 claimants, or 10,100 seasonally-adjusted, and the year from June 2007 to June 2008 showed a rise of 54,448 or 54,400 seasonally-adjusted.

[mypost]

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...e-1432459.html

[Reality Bites]

The Big Question now is, are Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan out of their depth to deal with an economic crisis, Cowen was an incompetent Minister of Finance pouring money into Public Spending backed-up by unsustainable property taxes all at the behest of Bertie , I am not sure yet if Lenihan knows what day of the week it is

[pete]

Under the Back to Education Allowance Scheme (BTEA), unemployed persons aged 18-25, who have been signing on the Live Register for more than six months, will be identified and encouraged to gain additional skills and qualifications, according to the minister.

"Officials across the country will spend the summer months identifying young people in their regions who would be eligible to go into an appropriate education or training schemes in the autumn, in order to up-skill and enable them to improve their chances in the jobs market," said the minister.

Government solution to reducing live register. Education budget increases same amount social welfare decreases?

Meanwhile, new figures show that more than 38,000 of the 221,000 people on the live register are from abroad.

According to reports at the weekend 15,500 claimants are from the 10 accession states that joined the EU in 2004 and half of them are from Poland.

Another 10,000 are from other overseas countries such as Africa, America and Australia and 2,000 are from the rest of the EU. On the basis of each unemployed person costing the state an average of €11,000 a year, the non-Irish claimants would cost the exchequer about €420m in a full year.

Polish figure seems low enough but equal number from the other accession states is high based on their relatively low populations. Would be surprised if Polish builders stayed in Ireland on the dole as would appear to be bit of boom at home.

[Reality Bites]

I suspect this Friday is goind to be quiet painful in Construction industry - with many tradesmen being told not to come back after the builders holidays!

[dahamsta]

Hadn't thought of that. Going by the house prices I was seeing in a troll through DAFT yesterday, probably an awful lot. There's plenty of incredible differences there, but one in particular went from 300k last year to 200k this year. I mean that's just funny.

adam

[John83]

I suspect this Friday is goind to be quiet painful in Construction industry - with many tradesmen being told not to come back after the builders holidays!

Yes, I know one company letting a large proportion of their staff go. They told them about a month ago.

[Billsthoughts]

surprised nobody mentioned the Davys job losses.50 staff from private clients and 25 from elsewhere. 3per cent (afair) pay cuts for anyone on over 50 grand.used to work there myself and that is a large chunk of private client staff. looking for people to take voluntary redundancies - the equivalent of winning the lotto about a year ago as you were guaranteed to walk into another job. I wonder how many will take it under current climate.

[mypost]

Ms. Callen must have had SFA to do yesterday.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0715/economy.html

Ireland has "lost the plot" apparantly. More like she's lost it.

Unbelievable!!

[Reality Bites]

Working in around Construction, we are all expecting one of the Big 5 contractors to fall very shortly - I think when this happen and It will according to strong rumours we really will know the game is up

[pete]

Ms. Callen must have had SFA to do yesterday.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0715/economy.html

Ireland has "lost the plot" apparently. More like she's lost it.

From a PR point of view a stupid thing to say as whether it is good or not no chance of happening.

The bigger debate that has started is the public sector pay freeze. How can the government cut public spending by 3% at the same time increasing pay in that sector. Numbers don't add up.

[Macy]

From a PR point of view a stupid thing to say as whether it is good or not no chance of happening.

They fought against an increased Labour Inspectorate, and after that failed they're trying to get rid of the minimum wage. The cynic in me would wonder are they trying to protect their members by regularising the staff that they are already exploiting by undercutting the minimum wage?

Everyone knows it goes on, so the employers organisations try to block the development of a system that will uncover the law breakers. When that fails, they try to remove the law that they are breaking.

The bigger debate that has started is the public sector pay freeze. How can the government cut public spending by 3% at the same time increasing pay in that sector. Numbers don't add up.

Reduce staff numbers - it's a roundabout way of introducing an embargo. Unfortunately, the ones that suffer because of this are the Clerical Levels who aren't the high paid in the Civil Service

[OneRedArmy]

Reduce staff numbers - it's a roundabout way of introducing an embargo. Unfortunately, the ones that suffer because of this are the Clerical Levels who aren't the high paid in the Civil Service

Thats a valid point.

Read in one of the Sunday papers that the most senior civil servants (those on E100k+) pretty much all got a significant bonus for "exceptional performance", and amusingly, all got pretty much the same amount.

So if they are all performing at the same level, how exceptional is it?

[Reality Bites]

Black Friday today in Construction Industry (eve of Builders Holidays) Alot of workers packing there bags for good from a few different sites, with these weekly trends now growing in both Trades and profession, I know of a few professional consultants Architect Engineers and QS that have shed staff -is there any real hope of getting work in this sector after redundancy in forseeable future?

[seanfhear]

I dont mind being unemployed but who or what is going to finance the lifestyle that I aspire to.

[Pauro 76]

Not good times over here either. Just been let go temporarily from my graphic design job. I havent been released, just have no idea when i'm back if things pick up. Not getting paid for time off either. Gutted as temping agencies are dead right now too and jobs seem very thin on the ground too.

[GavinZac]

Not good times over here either. Just been let go temporarily from my graphic design job. I havent been released, just have no idea when i'm back if things pick up. Not getting paid for time off either. Gutted as temping agencies are dead right now too and jobs seem very thin on the ground too.

If you're at a loose end and can do some web-based design, or even just logos and such, keep an eye on forums like sitepoint or (cant remember the exact name) webmaster world. there'll often be 'contracts tendered' where people ask for such and such, and either ask for estimates or issue a figure and go with the first person to match it. It can go anything for €20 to €500 and upwards so enough to keep yourself fed if you can commit some time to it.

I've had a pretty positive interview and hopefully could be employed again by the end of this week. Things not all bad! I think the 'churn' of staff is still going on as it was in the past but not always as voluntary as it was!

[Pauro 76]

If you're at a loose end and can do some web-based design, or even just logos and such, keep an eye on forums like sitepoint or (cant remember the exact name) webmaster world. there'll often be 'contracts tendered' where people ask for such and such, and either ask for estimates or issue a figure and go with the first person to match it. It can go anything for €20 to €500 and upwards so enough to keep yourself fed if you can commit some time to it.

I've had a pretty positive interview and hopefully could be employed again by the end of this week. Things not all bad! I think the 'churn' of staff is still going on as it was in the past but not always as voluntary as it was!

That's a good idea. I've just installed Adobe CS3 on my Mac so i now have the tools. Also going to email companies for work too. it's actually the second time ive had to leave my work temporarily because of a slump. First time round i was called back two weeks later and did some temping work to tide myself over. the problem is, temping work is dead too. I'll have a look at that mate, cheers! If you can email some links to me, id very much appreciate it.