Irish not confident about keeping jobs, survey shows

ONLY six out of 10 Irish workers are confident they will keep their job for the next two years, according to a survey of attitudes to work in the European Union.

But most believe more flexible work contracts that make hiring and firing easier are needed to encourage job creation.

The survey was carried out to support the idea of ‘flexicurity’, seen by some as key to tackling Europe’s stubborn unemployment rates, around 8% overall.

Flexicurity, as developed in Denmark, consists of a labour force willing to accept less job security in exchange for a guaranteed safety net of training and social protection while they are between jobs.

The majority of Irish workers questioned said they were confident they would remain in their current job for the next few months but were less sure about their future in the medium term.

Just 59% believed they would still be working for the same employer in two years time. However, this was higher than the EU average of 46%.

But the Irish were among the most confident that they would get another job within six months of losing their current position, second only to the Danes.

Less than a quarter of Irish said they had any training over the past year, which was below the EU average.

Even those out of work did not put a priority on training and were not interested in receiving details on employment and social policies funded by the EU.

However, the Irish surveyed believed that a qualification was the best way to get a job and rated it much higher than experience.

Some 65% said they had changed jobs at least once.

European Commissioner for Employment Vladimir Spidla said people were increasingly aware that to stay employable, they needed to continually learn and train.