Insurer to bring 200 new jobs to Carlow

A MAJOR jobs boost for Carlow is expected to be announced today with the creation of 200 new jobs.

Unum, the largest disability insurer in the US and Britain is understood to have chosen Carlow town as the location of its software services centre.

The announcement will come as further good news for the county which late last year saw the creation of 170 new jobs by global healthcare firm, Merck.

The announcement is expected to be made this morning by the Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Micheál Martin and is understood to be in association with the IDA.

The positions are expected to be geared at experienced software developers as well as recent graduates.

Unum will recruit 100 people by the end of next year and up to a further 100 after that.

Mr Martin has in the past praised the high level of graduates from Carlow Institute of Technology, where many of Unum’s staff could be recruited.

The investment will be seen as a further success for the Government and IDA Ireland in their commitment to deliver global investments to regional locations in Ireland.

Unum’s Irish operation is to be headed up by Brendan Maher.

Today will be Mr Martin’s third visit to Carlow in the past six months.

Last September he opened the new offices for 200 civil servants from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment which decentralised there, while the Merck announcement was made in November last year.

Unum employs 10,000 people worldwide and has total annual revenues of more than $10.5 billion (€7.2bn).

The company is based at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was previously named UnumProvident, which was formed from a merger of Unum of Portland, Maine, and Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company of Chattanooga.